英语口语高级训练(lesson19)b

2. What Kind of City Should Beijing Be？
　　The C. P. C. Central Committee Secretariat has proposed that Beijing should become：（1） a model in public security, social order and moral standards for the whole country and one of the best in the world；（2） a first-rate modern city with a fine environment, high standards of cleanliness and good sanitation¹；（3） the nation's most developed city in culture, science and technology, with the highest educational standard in the country； and（4） a city with a thriving economy, providing its residents wit.h stability in life and all kinds of conveniences.
　　3. Duo Duo Bar, Where Many Meet A small coffee shop on Xidan Street, barely wider than a hallway, has become a haunt for many young people in downtown Beijing. The Duo Duo Coffee Bar has a charm of its own. Its red walls adorned² with reed and bamboo hats and a spider web hanging from its dark ceiling remind one of the sunsets, perhaps at lakeside in a light drizzle³. This is the atmosphere in which people sip⁴ a cup of coffee, tea or wine while chatting with their friends. Duo Duo （Chinese for many） is owned by two yotrng men, Zhang Keyu, a technician, and Lu Wei, an artist.
　　“We started this coffee bar not only for making money,” said Zhang, 27, in a soft voice. “We want to offer our young friends a place for social contact. If what we earn is enough for paying the tax, we are satisfied.”Before opening this bar, we often heId weekend parties at home in which we chatted, sang and danced. Then an idea occurred ta us to open a coffee shop so that we could know more people and more about the society.“Without wasting any time, Lu Wei and I took out all our savings⁵ to refurnish this room. Our friends did what they could to help us. Lu Wei did the decoration himseif, using a lot of reed, which is what his name means. Within a month, this mini-coffee room opened its door to the public.”
　　The atmosphere appealed mostly to young people. A university graduate, for instance, needed a place to hold a farewll party. The young owners offered the bar to him free of charge and suspended their business for the night. The young man invited 20 friends. And the party was a great success.“Making friends is more important than making money,” Zhang observed. Being a full-time⁶ technician, Zhang has to work in his company by day and work in his coffee bar by night. He hires no employees. His friends volunteer to serve in this shop. A fashion designer whose nickname is also Duo Duo came in one day. “I'm glad my name is the same as this lovely bar's. I wish I had as many friends as it has,？she said.
　　Pierre was a French student on a study tour in Beijing. He enjoyed himself in the bar so much that he could not heip dancing like Charlie Chaplain and blowing on the suona, a Chinese wind instrument.“Business has been good since the bar opened last year, but there were minor⁷ troubles when two or three rascals⁸ said they could not pay for their drinks. All we could do was ask them to write down their names on our credit list. Sometimes a rude fellow would drop in and talk too loudly. But the quiet atmosphere here would soon make him feel out of place and he would leave. I wish I could write a novel about society based on what I've seen and heard in this bar,” Zhang said. It was already midnight. Xidan Street was asleep and empty. But the lights in Duo Duo still beckoned⁹ lonely walkers. Inside the room,customers were still chatting or humming.
　　4. Night Life Thrives in northern China people are asieep by midnight, but in Guangzhou most of the city's residents are still awake at that hour, living it up. Television and radio blast and blare away until two in the morning. Cinemas are multi-purpose. Besides showing films, they present video shows, dances and they have a bar.“I love the rich and coloarful night life in this southern city,” a young Beijinger said when he came to Guangzhou for a business trip. “Sometimes when I come to the city, ,I visit the night bazaars¹⁰.there.”
　　“I usually go shopping in the evening because I work during tbe day,” a middle-aged¹¹ woman said. “Furthermore, after supper,I like visiting the night bazaars. It's a.knid of entertainment.”As most people in Guangzhou don't go to bed until far into the night, they usually eat a midnight snack. After shopping or leaving a concert, people often get a snack on the way home.“I would like to spend 5 yuan （ $1.35） to sit down and relax and eat something in the evening,” Xiao Zheng, a taxi driver said. “Meanwhile, I might .spend another five yuan to have my car washed, ？he added.
　　In Guangzhou, there are car washing services near some of the big bazaars which are popular with the drivers. A lot of Guangzhou residenis take a second job at night to earn extra money. College teachers have part-time jobs lecturing at night schools. Engineers sometimes work on a project for another corporation. College students act as tutors. Problems also exist in the South China city. Prostitution is a bigger problem in Guangzhou than elsewhere in the country. And smuggling¹² has increased recently.
　　5. Problem for Beijingers Improving public toilets has long been a .erious problem in Beijing, as well as the rest of China. There is a wry¹³ saying among Chinese people, “Follow the smell if vou want to find a toilet.”“About 80 per cent of Beijing's public toilets fit the saying,” admitted Xue Baoyi, an official from Beiiing Sanita tion Bureau in 1989. But at the we：tern gate of the chinese History Museum near Tian'anmen. Square, there is an unusual “luxury” toilet of ahout 300 square metrea, in wltich there are rockeries, fountains, fresh flowers, a sofa and piped music. The standard of cleanliness is extremely high.
　　But visitors have to pay 0.3 yuan. Some say the clean toilet is worth the price, but others complain that they can not afford it. In Beijing there are now 40 such toilets at tourist sites. On the opposite side of the museum, by the southern gate of Zhongshan Park, is situated¹⁴ another fairly clean pay toilet. Since last March, Liu Zhaomin, a retired¹⁵ sanitation worker from the West City District Cleaning Team, and his wife have contracted to keep the facility clean, and the once dirty and foul-smelling toilet has become one of the cleanest in Beijing.
　　The old couple charge 0.03 yuan per person, but disabled people and students are admitted free. Outside the toilet they also provide water and help people take care of their belongings-all for free. Their service not only earns the old couple about 800 yuan monthly, but it also saves the government money. The toilet fees pay for maintenance There are no public toitets in some areas of the city. About 200 WCs in downtown area have to have soil carried away manually, mostly by old workers who are near retirement¹⁶, and it is now very difficult to recruit young people to do this job. Because of a shortage of manpower, tools and disinfectant, it's very hard to keep those public toilets clean.
　　“WC service in Beijing has four key problems,” said Xue. “There are no places and money for building public toilets. And most of them are in a very poor condition, and are badly managed.”Xue also said that the users should take care of public toilets. Many newly- painted walls in WCs are already dirty.
　　6. The Countryside in Spring We need never feel dull in the country. No matter how often we walk down the same road, over the same fields, or through the same woodland paths, there is always something new, somthing fresh to see.It may be a little plant that has come up since last we visited the place： a hedge that was just a lot of brown sticks may now be covered with flowers. We may find a bird's nest deep in a bush, and, if we are careful not to frighten the birds, as the days pass, see first the little eggs, and then the baby birds.
　　We never know what we may see, or find, when we start out for a country walk. But we must learn to use our eyes, keep them wide open, or we shall pass by many a pretty or interesting plant, or miss the sight of some little wild animal, who sees us well enough, and will keep perfectly¹⁷ still and quiet so that we should not notice him, until we are quite out of sight. The wild children of the woods and fields are easily frightened, and if we want to get to know them, we must do as they do, and learn to be quiet and keep very still when watching them at work or play. All the year round, from the first warm breath of Spring till the last icy wind of Winter, we shall always find something to please and interest us in the country.