Unit 3     

   Which of your senses do you enjoy the most? Which do you use the least? Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are at once survival tools, channels of information, sources of pleasure and pain -- and a fascinating subject to read and think about. The three texts in this unit encourage us to pay a bit more attention to the senses we usually take for granted -- to appreciate the way they work, the tricks they play, and the great joy they bring to our lives. Texts A and B concentrate on how children and adults can learn to experience the world with a never-ending freshness, while Text C contemplates the interesting things that can happen when we apply our sense of wonder to the world of work.

Text C    If I Were 21

As you read Text C, pay special attention to the italicized parts. Note down your interpretations in the right margin with the help of context clues.

   If I were 21 and wanted to study medicine, I don't think I'd go straight to school. I'd get a job as an aid in a hospital first -- carrying out bedpans（便盆）, if necessary -- and look and listen. After a year or two of that, I might know what kind of medicine I wanted to study. Maybe I'd find that I preferred to become an expert in childhood diseases rather than a surgeon (外科医生). I might even end up as a chemist or a maker of medical equipment. I'd see where the job led me.

     I happen to have monkeylike tendency  to want to feel, smell and taste things that arouse my curiosity, then to take them apart. Not everybody is like that, but a scientific researcher should be. But if I were 21 and not scientifically inclined,  I wouldn't disdain a job selling plastic dishes, for instance, from door to door.  I'd learn so much about people -- much more than in a laboratory. I'd make money and have fun. And I might learn some new things about what people want to buy --new ideas that would help the researcher, the designer or the manufacturer. It isn't the job you take that matters --it's what you do with it.

   I heard the other day of a young army officer who felt bitter when he left the army because his former employer had offered to give him his old job back  -- sealing envelopes. In the army, the young man, had been flying a bomber. Yet sealing envelopes is not a bad job. Some bright young man might derive（取得） an invention from it. Are envelopes made the way they should be, or does an envelope look the way it does because we're used to the way it looks? I don't know. What about the glue（胶水）, our methods of stamping and addressing? What I'm getting at is that some people are too snobbish in their thinking about work to see the possibilities every job offers if it's done right. One way to find out what you want to do in life is to try all kinds of jobs. If you don't like working in a filling station,   try a factory, an office, a shop, a farm. Not only will you find out what you want to do, but you will also pick up an amazing amount of useful information as you go along.

  I know a young man who's unsure whether to be a boat-builder or an accountant. I suggested, when he asked my advice, that he sit down at a typewriter and write two essays --one on the advantages of being a boat-builder, the other on the advantages of being an accountant. Then he should write two more on the disadvantages of each job and study what he's written. You never know what's in your mind until you get busy and let it out.

    A lot of people seem to think that we can learn only in our teens. Kids get this impression from their elders and, on emerging from the university or armed services at the age of 22, imagine themselves "too old" to take up such a noble science as, for example, medicine. 

   I was in my early 70s when I started my study of medicine -- not for a degree, but to enable me better to experiment with a medicine we're invented in our laboratories. Two years ago I took up hydrogen-electric welding (气电焊), and I became a pretty good welder. I was trying to find a means of eliminating the sputter（劈啪声）. I relate this in no spirit of boastfulness.  I just want youngsters to know that they are never "too old" to learn.

  如果我是21岁，想要学医，我想我不会直接去学校。我会先在一家医院里找一份做护工的工作——端便盆，如果需要的话——去看，去听。这样干上一两年以后，我也许会知道我想学哪一科的医学。也许我会发现我更愿意成为一名儿科疾病的专家而不是一名外科医生。我最终甚至可能成为一名药剂师或一名医疗器械的制造商。我会看这份工作把我引向何方。

    我碰巧具有猴子一样的性格倾向，想去摸摸、闻闻、尝尝引起我好奇的东西，然后把它们拆开。并非每个人都这样，但一个科学研究者却应该这样。但如果我是21岁，不喜爱科学，我也不会鄙弃一份挨家挨户兜售塑料盘子之类的工作。我会学到那么多关于人的东西——比在实验室里学的多得多。我会赚钱，过得很开心。我也许会学到一些人们想买什么的新知识——会有助于研究者、设计者或制造商的新思想。重要的不在于你干什么工作——关键在于你如何干。

  前几天我听说一位年轻的军官退伍时感到忿忿不平，因为他先前的雇主把他的老本行还给了他——封信封。在部队时，这位年轻人一直在驾驶轰炸机。然而封信封也不是一份坏工作。某个聪明的年轻人也许会从中获得一项发明。信封是否就应该这样制作，还是因为我们习惯于它现在的样子所以才认为信封就应该是这个样子？我不知道。胶水怎么样，我们贴邮票和书写姓名地址的方式又怎么样呢？我这里想说的是有些人对工作的看法过于势利，以至于看不到如果干得好每一种工作所提供的潜在价值。有一种弄清楚你想在生活中干什么的方法就是尝试各种各样的工作。如果你不喜欢在汽车加油站工作，那就试试工厂、办公室、商店、农场。你不仅会发现你想干什么，而且还会在这个过程中不经意地获得大量有用的信息。

  我认识一个年轻人，他吃不准是当一名造船者还是做一名会计师好。当他征求我的意见时，我建议他坐在打字机前写两篇文章——一篇论述当造船者的好处，另一篇论述当会计师的好处。然后他应该再写两篇文章论述每份工作的坏处，然后对他所写的东西进行一番研究。你永远不会知道自己心里的想法，直到你开动脑筋，把它表达出来。

    许多人似乎认为我们只能在十几岁时学习。孩子们从他们的长辈那儿得到这种印象，22岁从大学毕业或从军队中退役，就以为他们自己“太老了”，无法再学像医学这类的高深的科学了。

  我是70出头时才开始学医的——不是为了拿学位，而是要使自己能更好地试验我们在实验室里发明的一种药。两年前我开始学习气电焊，成了一名相当不错的焊工。当时我正试图找到一个消除劈啪声的办法。我讲这些决无自吹自擂之心。我只是想让年轻人知道他们任何时候学习都不会“太老”。

    人类正在生产越来越多的新产品。我们生产得越多，人们就会工作得越多，买得越多。就业人数就会滚雪球般地增长。如今，机会比以往都多，而且一直在增加。我认为它们是无限的。我年纪越大就越意识到公众的利益高于一切。如果我在考虑从事一项新的职业，我会权衡三个因素：它服务于公众的情况如何；它里面有多少乐趣；它的经济报酬能否满足我的需求。