You could benefit from flipping through the pages of I Can’t Believe You Asked That, a book by author Phillip Milano that’s subtitled, A No-Holds-Barred Q&A A bout Race, Sex, Religion, and Other Terrifying Topics.
For the past seven years, Milano—who describes himself as "a straight, white middle class married guy raised in an affluent suburb of Chicago"—as operated yforum.com, a Website that was created to get us talking. Through the posting of probing, provocative and sometimes simply inane questions and the answers they generate, people are encouraged to have a no-holds-barred exchange on topics across racial, ethnic and cultural lines. More often than not, the questions grow out of our biases and fears and the stereotypes that fuel misunderstanding among us.
As with the Web site, Milano hopes his book will be a social and cultural elixir. "The time is right for a new ’culture of curiosity’ to begin to unfold, with people finally breaking down the last barrier to improve race and cultural relations" by actually talking to each other about their differences, Milano said in an e-mail message to me. Milano wisely used the Internet to spark these conversations. In seven years, it has generated 50,000 postings—many of them questions that people find hard to ask in a face-to-face exchange with the subjects of their inquiries.
But in his book, which was published earlier this month, Milano gives readers an opportunity to read the questions and a mix of answers that made it onto his Web site. "I am curious about what people who have been blind from birth ’see’ in their dreams," a 13-year old boy wanted to know. "Why do so many mentally disabled people have such poor-looking haircuts and ’nerdy’ clothes？" a woman asked. "How do African-Americans perceive God？" a white teenager wanted to know. "Do they pray to a white God or a black God？"
Like I said, these questions can generate a range of emotions and reactions. But the point of Milano’s Web site, and his book, is not to get people mad, but to inform. us "about the lives and experiences" of others. Though many of the answers that people offered to the questions posed in his book are conflicting, these responses are balanced by the comments of experts whose responses to the queries also appear in the book.
Getting people to openly say what they are thinking about things that give rise to stereotypes and bigotry has never been easy. Most of us save those conversations for gatherings of people who look or think like us.
The purpose of the website is to
A．give people a chance to speak out.
B．prepare materials for a book.
C．get people exchanging ideas freely.
D．solve the social and cultural problems.
There are two sorts of people in the world, who with equal degrees of health, and wealth, and the other comforts of life, become, the one happy, and tile other miserable. This arises very much from the different views in which they consider things, persons, and events.
In whatever situation men can be placed, they may find conveniences and inconveniencies; in whatever company, they may find persons and conversation more or less pleasing; at whatever table, they may meet with meats or drinks of better and worse taste, dishes better or worse dressed; in whatever climate they will find good and bad weather; under whatever government, they may find good and bad laws, and good and bad administration of those laws; in every poem or work of genius they may see faults and beauties; in almost every face and every person, they may discover fine features and effects, good and bad qualities.
Under these circumstances, the two kinds of people above mentioned fix their attention, those who are to be happy, on the conveniences of things, the pleasant parts of conversation, the well-dressed dishes, the goodness of the wines, the fine weather, and enjoy all with cheerfulness. Those who are to be unhappy, think and speak only of the contraries. Hence they are continually discontented themselves, and by their remarks sour the pleasures of society, offend personally many people, and make themselves everywhere disagreeable. If this turn of mind were founded in nature, such unhappy persons would be the more to be pitied. The tendency to criticize and to be disgusted is perhaps taken up originally by imitation, and is unawares grown into a habit, which at present strong may nevertheless be cured when those who have it are convinced of its bad effects on their felicity.
I hope this little admonition may be of service to them, and put them on changing a habit, which in the exercise is chiefly an act of imagination yet has serious consequences in life, as it brings on real grieves and misfortunes. For many are offended, nobody loves this sort of people, no one shows them more than the most common civility and respect, and scarcely that; and this frequently puts them out of humor, and draws them into disputes and contentions. If they aim at obtaining some advantage in rank or fortune, nobody wishes them success, or will stir a step, or speak a word, to favor their pretensions. If they incur public censure or disgrace, no one will defend or excuse, and many join to aggravate their misconduct, and render them completely odious. If these people will not change this bad habit, and condescend to be pleased with what is pleasing, without fretting themselves and others about the contraries, it is good for others to avoid an acquaintance with them, which is always disagreeable, and sometimes very inconvenient, especially when one finds one's self entangled in their quarrels.
An old philosophical friend of mine grown from experience, was very cautious in this particular, and carefully avoided any intimacy with such people. He had, like other philosophers, a thermometer to show him the heat of the weather, and a barometer to mark when it was likely to prove good or bad; but, there being no instrument invented to discover, at first sight, this unpleasing disposition in a person. He for that purpose made use of his legs, one of which was remarkably handsome, the other, by some accident, crooked and deformed. If a stranger, at the first interview, regarded his ugly leg more than his handsome one, he doubted him. If he spoke of it, took no notice of the handsome leg, that was sufficient to determine my philosopher to have no further acquaintance with him. Every body has not this two-legged instrument, but every one with a little attention, may observe signs of that carping, faultfinding disposition, and take the same resolution of avoiding the acquaintance of those infected with it. I therefore advise those critical, querulous, dis
A．their comforts of life
B．their minds
C．their feelings
D．their health and wealth
Dream is a story that a person “watches”or even takes part in during sleep.Dream events are imaginary, but they are related to real experiences and needs in the dreamer's life.They seem real while they are taking place.Some dreams are pleasant, others are annoying, and still others are frightening.
Everyone dreams, but some persons never recall dreaming.Others remember only a little about a dream they had just before awakening and nothing about earlier dreams.No one recalls all his dreams.
Dreams involve little logical thought.ln most dreams, the dreamer cannot control what happens to him.The tory may be conf ing, and things happen that would not happen in real life.People see in most dreams, hut they may also hear, smell touch, and taste in their dreams.Most dreams occur in color.But people who have been blind since birth do not see at all in dreams.
Dreams are a product of the sleeper's mind.They include events and feelings that he has experienced.Most dreams are related to events of the day before the dream and strong wishes of the dreamer.Many minor incidents of the hours before sleep appear in dreams.Few events more than two days old turn up.Deep wishes or fears-especially those held since childhood-often appear in dreams, and many dreams fulfill such wishes.Events in the sleeper's surrounding-a loud noise, for example, may become part of a dream, but they do not cause dreams.
Some dreams involve deep feelings that a person may not realize he has.Psychiatrits often use material from a patient's dreams to help the person understand himself better.
Dreaming may help maintain good learning ability, memory, and emotional adjustment.People who get plenty of sleep but are awakened each time they begin to dream become anxious and restless.
21.This passage is mainly about().
A.why we dream during sleep
B.how we dream during sleep
C.what dreams are
D.what benefits dreams bring to people
22.According to the passage, dreams result from().
A.the sleeper's wishes
B.the sleeper's imagination
C.the sleeper's feeling
D.the sleeper's own mind
23.Which of the following is NOT true？ ()
A.Dream is a confusing story which involves little logic thought.
B.Dream is related to the dreamer's real life.
C.Dream is an imaginary store which seems real while taking place.
D.Dream involves events that always happen in real life.
24.This passage suggests that psychiatrists are().
A.trying to help the dreamer recall his earlier dreams
B.trying to make the sleeper dream logically
C.studying the benefits of dreams
D.helping the sleeper fulfill his dreams
25.We may infer form. the passage that dreaming().
A.is beneficial to people
B.disturbs people's life
C.makes people always restless
D.deprives people of a good sleep
