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The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them.Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different

-Rick Pitino

WHY DO WE WORK?

Gregory S. Gallopoulos 1. Lawyers practice a difficult and demanding profession. They expect to be well compensated. In thinking about what that means, it can help to consider the basic question, "Why do we work?’’Samuel Johnson supplied an obvious answer when he famously observed. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote. except for money." But I am not being paid to write this article. and instead of labeling myself a blockhead. let me refer to the insight of eminent psychologist Theodor Reik: "Work and love - these are the basics. Without them there is neurosis."

2. Why do we work? For money, but also for sanity. We expect and need to be compensated in nonmonetary ways. Noneconomic compensation matters to top-flight lawyers- otherwise. they would have long ago fled to investment banks". Law firms that want to recruit and retain the best (and the sanest) must compensate not only in dollars but also in psychic gratification. Accordingly, managers of elite firms need to think consciously about what lawyers are looking for beyond money. Here are some key noneconomic elements of compensation.

3. Professional identity

Many lawyers define themselves with reference to the privileges and attributes of their profession. When firms recognize professional prerogatives, they provide an important form of compensation.

4. For example. lawyers pride themselves on belonging to a learned profession. By providing opportunities for continued intellectual grow~h , law firms can simultaneously provide a form of compensation and reinforce a core value of the profession. This isn't hard to do. Organize and host seminars with Ieading scholars. support scholarship in-house with resources such as research assistance and create venues for lawyers to engage in serious discourse.

5. Another core professional value is autonomy. A law firm pays psychic compensation when it understands and accepts that in matters of professional judgment. lawyers are their own masters. In this regard. firms should encourage a diversity of approaches, letting each lawyer develop his or her own style of practice. Empowering lawyers in this way inculcates a heightened sense of personal responsibility. which in turn reinforces the drive for individual excellence.

6. Equally important to professional autonomy is that firms need to take care not to impinge on a lawyer's exercise of considered professional judgment, even when that means refusing a client. Lawyers are not the servants of their clients. In appropriate circumstances. telling the client "No" is

an act of the highest professionalism. A lawyer is well-paid with the confidence that the firm will stand behind him or her in such circumstances.

7. Lastly. professional status encompasses adherence to ethical standards. Most lawyers find self-worth in setting an example-both within the profession and within the larger society-as ethical actors. When management affirms the special respect due to lawyers who act with the utmost integrity and civility in all of their professional dealings, it provides yet another form of compensation.

8. Personal pride

Few of us make it through the rigors of a legal education without having a deeply internalized sense of excellence for its own sake. ' Lawyers compensate themselves with the powerful self-affirmation of a job well done.

9. As a matter of both compensation and reputation, an elite firm cannot afford to impede the drive to excellence. even when it's not cost effective in the short term. This means. for example, that firm management should applaud the writing and rewriting of a brief to the highest standard even when a cynical perspective would suggest that the extra effort will have no practical effect. 10. Always celebrate superlative work product even when it seems unlikely to make a difference in the outcome. Instead of kowtowing to client demands for super work at a cut-rate price, deliver excellence and expect to be paid for it.

11. Idealism

Think back to law school. Who remembers talking into the night about how to obtain the highest profits per equity partner' ?

12. More memorable discussions covered things such as the advancement of civil rights, the provision of legal services to the poor, the development of a more equitable system of taxation. the promulgation of international norms guaranteeing basic human dignity. Lawyers thirst for justice, and slaking that thirst is an important element of compensation. Almost by definition, an elite law firm supports pro bono and public service efforts. thereby accomplishing the intertwined goal of compensating its professionals and discharging its institutional obligations' to society.

13. Recognition

Psychic compensation includes recognition. both formal and informal. Rendering such compensation depends on management's making just a little extra effort to acknowledge achievement. Celebrate important accomplishments and mark important milestones. On occasion. elaborate dinners or parties are called for. but often casual events will serve the purpose. Institute formal award programs. Stage ceremonies of public recognition. Never neglect to mark even relatively minor accomplishments with a congratulatory e-mail or phone call.

14. Institutional pride

Finally, a law firm can compensate its lawyers by giving them cause to be proud to be a part of the

firm. Law firms. as institutions, can outlive, outperform and out contribute any individual. We join firms in order to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. When firm management commits itself to building the firm as an integrated institution. with strong institutional values. and when the firm thrives as an institution. Belonging to the firm becomes its own reward.

15.Of course. this requires management to foster a corporate identity" that subsumes individual egos-the greater good of the group must take precedence. And the firm as an institution must meet the highest standards in every area: excellent corporate citizenship, superb client service, selfless public service, outstanding reputation.

16. In sum. lawyers - or, at least. the best lawyers--don't work for bread alone. And law firms - or, at least. elite law firms-cannot hope to effectively recruit or retain top legal talent without an attractive package of psychic compensation. which means that law firm managers must attend to the same.

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‘light refined, learned and noble, harmonious and orderly, clear and logical, the cooking of France is, in some strange manner, intimately linked to the genius of her greatest men.’’

--Marcel Rouff, French journalist and writer

A CUISINE CRISIS

1. What could be more French than an outdoor market on a sunny Sunday morning'? The air is filled with vital scents from the herbs and fruits and vegetables piled high in the greengrocers' creative geometrics. A whiff of the Atlantic blows off the oysters on the fishmongers' bed of ice. Wild game -hare. venison, boar - hangs from the butchers' racks. sausages and cheeses are laid out to savor and smell.

2. This. you think. is the very essence of France, until you read those little si&s that tell you the tomatoes (which are really pretty tasteless) come from Moroccan hothouses. the grapes from South Africa. kiwis from Chile and the haricot from Kenya. You can't even be sure where that boar bit the dust.

3. The congenial quaintness of the street market, in fact, draws directly on globalization. What Emile Zola once called "the belly of Paris", the rich, ripe. smelly center of the wholesale food business. long since moved out of downtown to a cargo hub near Orly airport. Quite literally. that is now where a lot of French cooking begins - and. increasingly, where the era of great French cuisine as something truly unique and exclusive to France is slowly coming to an end.

4. For generations, the French have prided themselves on their distinctiveness. Nothing has

stood for France's sense of exceptionalism more famously than its cooking. Gallic talent, taste and techniques have been exported all over the world. And therein lies part to the problem. From the Napa Valley- to the Thames and Tokyo, non-French cooks have cracked the codes of the best French cuisine. Meanwhile. what was mediocre elsewhere - albeit cheap and popular-has been imported. The result: Many tourists- as well as the French themselves-no longer see what's so special about French cooking.

5. The decline goes well beyond recent surveys that show growing complaints about mediocre quality and high prices-no small concern in a country where tourisme gastronomique' earned 18 billion euros in 2002, a quarter of all tourist revenues. More and more restaurateurs say that government tax and economic policies are limiting their profits. and thereby hurting their capacity to invest and hire more staff. They have become ensnarled in the red tape for which France is infamous- not to mention edicts from Brussels' that affect everything from sales taxes to the bacteria in the Brie.

6. Not coincidentally, it was the French who taught the world that water has many very different, very marketable tastes. At the annual agricultural fair in Paris this spring, visitors not only enjoyed sipping wines. but olive oils - one a little nutty, another quite fruity, some of them, one is tempted to say. just a little impudent. Even table salt has its distinctions. with fleur de sel'. the thin layer collected on the surface of salt basins in the Bordeauxu region. now much appreciated. "France is one of those countries where people can Ieave the table full and still be talking about food," jokes chef Yannic k Alleno. 35, who brought a new star to the restaurant of the Hotel Meurice this yea r. His favorite specialty: sea bass sewn with golden threads.

7. But the real paradox of French cooking-in France. at least-is that artistic success often spells business disaster. Starred chefs often end up drowning in red ink as they try to maintain the high standards that made their names.

8. Consider the value-added taxes' that were "harmonized" all over Europe during the 1990s. They benefit fast-food chains. since the tax on takeaway is only 5.5u/ percent. while they penalize sit-down restaurants. whether humble bistros or haute cuisine . which pay 19.6%. When President Jacques Chirac ran for re-election in 2002, he promised to reduce the tax. but such is the nature of the new Europe that all 25 countries will have to approve the measure for it to take effect--in 2006. The government is instituting other complicated tax breaks and stopgap measures in the meantime to try to calm the restive restaurateurs and in hopes of creating employment. But (a starred chef) Daguin is deeply skeptical. "If the French were under the same fiscal regime as the United States. we'd be able to create twice as many jobs," he says.

9. Strict labor laws restricting hiring. firing and temp-work also figure in the equation. "Our business is a succession of high-stress times and quiet times," says Denis Meliet. a former rugby player and a passionate restaurateur from Toulouse. When it comes to employment. "the problem

in France is that we have no flexibility whatsoever. When we're busy it would be good if, like in England, we could hire a couple of extra employees to help out." But the law makes that difficult. 10. Even when government regulations appear specially formulated to support the culture of cuisine, they often "go astray". The EU's Common Agricultural Policy. for instance, is supposed to benefit small farmers, keep them on the land- and thus, you 'd think. nurture the terroir that gives French cooking its soul. and France much of its national identity. But activist Brigitte Allain of the Confederation Paysanne, a farmer herself. says the CAP. in fact, does just the reverse-favors quantity over quality. "In this system." she says, "farmers are merely providers of staples whose sole requirement (in order to receive generous EU subsidies) is to deliver the goods according to the rules." "If our cuisine has prestige," says Allain, "it's because we have chefs who are interested in good products. And we have good products because we still have a type of agriculture that we call peasant agriculture '; alongside the factory farms. Notice I say 'still'. because this agriculture may not last that long."

11. As France's great chefs worry about staying in the avant-garde ', with their gold threads and miraculous meringues, many small farmers and restaurateurs seem to be fighting a rearguard action just to survive.

12. The problems afflicting French cuisine are emblematic of those that plague the economy as a whole. Like French cuisine. the French economy still holds the occasional surprise: last week the government announced that economic growth for 2004 should be higher than expected. But the basic problems of bureaucracy, taxes ana social reluctance to change remain a burden for everyone. "At all levels-political, social. cultural or biological-cooking is at the forefront of the great choices that we have to make as a society," says Raymond Blanc. born in the Jura region of France and chef of the two-star hotel restaurant Manoir aux Quat'Saisons.

13. B1anc believes France is still ahead of the rest of the world in the richness of its cuisine. but for how long? "It's as if France stopped caring about its regions and what gives them diversity," he says. France's problem isn't the lack of creativity, but rather a political environment that stymies initiative. If you're choked by bureaucracy and taxes, as so much of France is. "there's not much you can do," he adds. "I can open a business in England in five days. In France it would take three months."

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Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations. Long vacations. Lots of dancing. So why can't we loosen up7

--Jane Austen

EUROPEANS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

Long vacations. Lots of dancing. So why can’t we loosen up?

1. Walking across Boulevard St. Michel in Paris last week. on the night before Bastille Day', I bumped into an old friend- an American who has lived in the city for 25 years -who told me he was taking up the tango. When I asked him why, he suggested I take a stroll along the Left Bank of the Seine-. opposite Ile St. Louis. and so of course I did.

2. It was one big party. A drop-dead gorgeous crowd was tangoing away in a makeshift, open- air amphitheater. Nearby. a multiethnic group was doing the merengue. Hundreds of others were tucking into picnics by the river as a full moon rose in a cloudless sky. Much later that night, after a perfea fish soup in the Place des Vosges, I walked into the narrow passages of the Marais district and stumbled upon an impromptu block party' . Someone had set up a sound system on the sidewalk. and the street was packed with people-straight and gay ' , young and old. black and white -danciW salsa.

3. Europe is enjoying itself. OK. in late July, it always does. The weekend I was in Paris. an estimated 500.000 kids descended on Berlin for the annual Love Parade". Meanwhile. tens of thousands of families started their trek from the damp north of the Continent to their vacation homes in the warm south. But even when the sun isn't shining, Europeans seem to be throwing themselves into fun and festivity with unprecedented zeal. Each weekend. central London is one great bacchanal. Cities that for reasons of politics or religion were once gloomily repressive - Madrid. say. or Dublin-now rock to the small hours. Irt Prague the foreign visitors who get talked about are not the earnest young Americans who flocked there in the early 1990s, but British partygoers who have flown in for the cheap beer and pretty girls. The place that British historian Mark Mazower once called the true dark continent-and from whose curdled soul the horrors of fascism sprang-has become Europa Ludens '. a community at play.

4. Funny. This is how the US was supposed to be. In a famous series of essays collected in his 1976 book, The Cultural Contradictions of capitalism, Daniel Bell noted how the decline of the Protestant small-town ethic had unhinged American capitalism from its moral foundation in the intrinsic value of work. By the l960s. Bell argued. "the cultural justification of capitalism [had] become hedonism. the idea of pleasure as a way of life." This magazine agreed. In a 1969 cover story entitled "California: A State of Excitement." Time reported that, as most Americans saw it, "the good, godless, gregarious pursuit of pleasure is what California is all about... 'I have seen the

future,' says the newly retumed visitor to California. 'and it plays. "'

5. But the American future didn't turn out as we expected. While Europeans cut the hours they spend at the office or factory ~ in France it is illegal to work more than 35 hours a week- and lengthened their vacations. Americans were concluding that you could be happy only if you work hard and play hard. So they began to stay at their jobs longer than ever and then, in jam-packed weekends at places like the Hamptons on Long Island. invented the uniquely American concept of scheduled joy, filling a day off with one appointment after another. as if it were no different from one at the office. American conservatives. meanwhile. came to believe that Europeans' desire to devote themselves to the pleasures of life and-the shame of it! - six weeks annual vacation was evidence of a lack of seriousness and would. in any event, end in economic tears.

6. Why do Europeans and Americans differ so much in their attitude toward work and leisure? I can think of two reasons. First, the crowded confines of Western Europe and the expansive space of North America have led to varied consumer preferences. Broadly speaking. Americans value stuff SUVs' , 7,OOO-sq.-ft. houses - more than they value time. while for Europeans it's the opposite. Second, as Bell predicted. America's sense of itself as a religious nation has revived. At least in the puritanical version of Christianity that has always appealed to Americans. religion comes packaged with the stern message that hard work is good for the soul. Modern Europe has avoided so melancholy a lesson.

7. Whatever the explanation. the idea of a work-life balance is a staple of European discourse. studied in think tanks', mulled over by policymakers. In the US. the term. when it's used at all. is said with the sort of sneer reserved for those who eat quiche. But it might still catch on. When Bill Keller was named executive editor of the New York Times last week. he encouraged the staff to do -a little more savoring" of life.spending time with their families or viewing art.

8. Even better. they could take up the tango

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They do not love that do not show their love.The course of true love never did run Smooth.Love isⅡfamiliar. Love is＆devil. There is no evil angel but Love.

--William Shakes'peare

THE LAST CHAPTER

1. "I love you. Bob."

2. "I love you, too. Nancy."

3. It was 2 a.m. and I was hearing my parents' voices through the thin wall separating my bedroom from theirs. Their loving reassurances were sweet. touching - and surprising.

4. My parents married on September 14, 1940. after a brief courtship. She was nearing 30 and knew it was time to start a family. The handsome, well-educated man who came by the office where she worked looked like a good bet'. He was captivated by her figure, her blue eves. The romance didn't last long.

5. Seeds of difference sprouted almost immediately. She liked to travel: he hated the thought. He loved golf; she did not. He was a Republican; she an ardent Democrat. They fought at the bridge table. at the dinner table, over money, over the perceived failings of their respective in-laws-. To make matters worse. they owned a business together, and the everydaY frustrations of life at the office came to roost at home.

6. There was a hope that they would change once they retired. and the furious winds did calm somewhat. but xvhat remained steeled itself into bright, hard bittemess. "l always thought we'd. . . " my mother would begin, before launching into a precise listing of my father's faults. The litany was recited so often. I can reel it off by heart today. As he listened. my father would m叫eer angry threats and curses. It was a miserable duet.

7. It wasn't the happiest marriage, but as their 60th anniversary approached. my sister and I decided to throw a party. Sixty years was a long time. after all; why not t~y to make the best of things? We'd provide the cake, the balloons. the toasts. and they'd abide by one rule: no fiehtinii.

8. The truce was honored'. We had a wonderful day. In hindsight it was an important celebration. because soon after, things began to change for my parents. As debilitating

dementia settled in. theu marriage was about the only thing they wouldn't lose.

9. It began when their memories started to fade. Added to the frequent house-wide hunts for glasses and car keys were the groceries left behind on the counter. notices of bills left unpaid. Soon my parents couldn't remember names of friends. then of their grandchildren. Finally they didn't remember that they had grandchildren.

10. These crises would have at one time set them at each other's throats. but now they acted as

a team. helping each other with searches. consoling each other with "Everyone does that" or "It's nothing; you're just tired." They found new roles-bolstering each

other against the f'ear of loss.

11. Financial control was the next thing to g04. For all of their marriage. my parents stubbornly kept separate accounts. Sharing being unthinkable, they'd devised financial arrangements so elaborate they could trigger war at any time. He. For example, was to pay for everything outside the house: she for whatever went on

inside. The who-pays dilemma was so complex for one trip that they6nally gave up traveling entirely.

12. l took over the books'. Now no one knew how things got paid; no one saw how the columns that spelled their fortunes compared' . Next I hired a housekeeper. Cooking and cleaning, chores

my mother had long complained about. were suddenly gone. Finally- on doctors' orders - we cleared the house of alcohol. the fuel that turned more than one quarrel into a raging fire.

13. You could say my parents ' lives had been whittled away. that they could no longer engage in the business of living. But at the same time. something that had been buried deep was coming up and taking shape. I saw it when my father came home after a brief hospital stay.

14. We'd tried to explain my father's absence to my mother. but because of her memory, she could not keep it in her head .vhy he had disappeared. She asked again and again where he was. and again and again we told her. And each day her anxiety grew.

15. When I finally brought him home, we opened the front dootzto see my mother sitting on the sofa. As he stepped in to the room. she rose with a cry. l stayed back as he slowly walked toward her and she toward him. As they approached each other on legs rickety 111 with age, her hands fluttered over his face. "Oh. there you are." she said. "There you are.’’

16. I don't doubt that if my mother and father magically regained their old vigor. they'd be back fighting. But I now see that something came of all those years of shared days- days of sitting at the same table. waking to the same sun, working and raising children together. Even the very fury they lavished on each other was a brick in this unseen creation, a structure that reveals itself increasingly as the world around them falls apart.

17. In the early morning l once again heard the voices through the wall. "Where are we?" my father asked. "I don't know," my mother replied softly.

18. How lucky they are. I thought. to have each other.

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Mental and physical health are affected by an individualo ability to adapt to stress.

STRESS AND HEALTH

1. Stress affects everyone to some degree. In fact, approximately 67% of adults indicate that they experience “great stress” at least one day a week. Stressors, the sources of stress, come in many forms, and even positive life events can increase our stress levels.

2. At moderate levels, stress can motivate us to reach our goals and keep life interesting. However, when stressors are severe or chronic, our bodies may not be able to adapt successfully. Stress can compromise immune functioning, leading to a host of diseases of adaptation. In fact,

stress has been linked to between 50% and 70% of all illnesses. Further, stress is associated with negative health behavior, such as alcohol and other drug use, and to psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety. Although all humans have the same physiological system for responding to stress, stress reactivity varies across individuals. In addition, the way we think about or perceive stressful situations has a significant impact on how our bodies respond. Thus，there are large individual differences in responses to stress.

3. This section will review the concepts, causes and consequences of stress. Figure 1 illustrates the many factors involved in individual reactions to stress. First, stressors, such as daily hassles and major life events, will be described. Then the physiological response to stress and impact of these effects on physical and mental health will be reviewed. Finally individual differences in physiological and cognitive responses to stress and the implications of these individual differences for health and wellness will be discussed.

4. The first step in managing stress is to recognize the causes and to be aware of the symptoms. You need to recognize the factors in your life that cause stress. Identify the things that make you feel “stressed out”. Everything from minor irritations, such as traffic jams, to major life change, such as births, deaths, or job loss, can be stressors. A stress overload of too many demands on your time can make you feel that you are no longer in control. You may feel so overwhelmed that you become depressed. Recognizing the causes and effects of stress is important for learning how to manage it.

5. Stress has a variety of sources. There are many kinds of stresses. Environmental stressors include heat, noise, overcrowding, climate, and terrain. Physiological stressors are such things as drugs, caffeine, tobacco, injury, infection or disease, and physical effort.

6. Emotional stressors are the most frequent and important stressors. Some people refer to these as psychosocial stressors. These include life-changing events, such as a change in work hours or line of work, family illnesses, deaths of relatives or friends, and increased responsibilities. In school, pressures such as grades, term papers, and oral presentations induce stress.

7. Stressors vary in severity. Because stressors vary in magnitude and duration, many experts categorize them by severity. Major stressors create major emotional turmoil or require tremendous amounts of adjustment. This category includes personal crises (e.g. major health problems or death in the family, divorce/separation, financial problems, legal problems) and job/school-related pressures or major age-related transition (e.g. college, marriage, career, retirement). Minor stressors are generally viewed as shorter-term or less severe. This category includes events or problems such as traffic hassles peer/work relations, time pressures, and family squabbles. Major stressors can alter daily patterns of stress and impair our ability to handle the minor stressors of life, while minor stressors can accumulate and create more significant problems. It is important to be aware of both types of stressors,

8. Negative, ambiguous, and uncontrollable events are usually the most stressful. Although stress can come from both positive and negative events, negative ones generally cause more distress because negative stressors usually have harsher consequences and little benefit. Positive stressors, on the other hand, usually have enough benefit to make them worthwhile. For example, although the stress of getting ready for a wedding may be tremendous, it is not as bad as the negative stress associated with losing a job.

9. Ambiguous stressors are harder to accept than are more clearly defined problems. In most cases, if the cause of a stress or problem can be identified, active measures can be taken to improve the situation. For example, if you are stressed about a project at work or school, you can use specific strategies to help you complete the task on time. Stress brought on by a relationship with friends or co-workers, on the other hand, may be harder to understand. In some cases, it is not possible to determine the primary source or cause of the problem. These situations are more problematic because fewer clear-cut solutions exist.

10. Another factor that makes events stressful is a lack of control. Stress brought on by illness, accidents, or natural disasters fit into this category. Because little can be done to change the situation, these events leave us feeling powerless. If the stressor is something that can be dealt with more directly, efforts at minimizing the stress are likely to be effective.

11. The nature and magnitude of stressors change during the life span. Depending on your perspective, some periods in life are more stressful than others, but each phase has its own challenges and experiences. Some argue that adolescence represents the more stressful time of life. Dra stic changes in a person’s body and numerous psychosocial challenges must be overcome. College provides additional mental challenges as well as financial pressures and the pressures of living independently. During the early adult years, tremendous pressures and responsibilities force you to juggle career and family obligations. Late adulthood presents still other new challenges such as coping with declining functioning or illness. Although the nature of the stressor changes, the presence of stress remains consistent.

12. College presents unique challenges and stressors. For college students, schoolwork can be a full-time job, and those who have to work outside of school must handle the stress of both jobs. Although the college years are often thought of as a break from the stress of the real world, college life has its own stressors, obvious source of stress include taking exams, speaking in public, and becoming comfortable with talking to professors. Students are often living independently of family for the first time while negotiating new relationships-with roommates, dating partners, and so on. Young people entering college are also faced with a less structured environment and with the need to control their own schedules. Though this environment has a number of advantages, students are faced with a greater need to manage their stress effectively.

13. In addition to the traditional challenges of college, the new generation of students faces

stressors that were not typical for college students in the past. According to the American Council on Education, only 40% of today’s college students enroll full-time immediately after high school. Once in college, more students now work to support their studies, and many go back to school after spending time in the working world. These students are likely to have additional pressures not characteristic of the typical college student. Further, more of today’s students are the first in their families to go to college. This may place additional pressure on these students to succeed. Perhaps as a result of some of these factors, rates of mental health problems among college students have increased dramatically. A study from the American College Health Association indicated that 10% of college students are diagnosed with depression. In another study, 53% of students reported feeling depressed at some point during their college careers and 9% have reported considering suicide. Although more people ate receiving cure for mental health problems than in the past, the vast majority are still not receiving adequate care. University counseling centers are typically understaffed and unable to handle the increasing number of college students seeking mental health service.

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What do Chinese immigrants and their descendents seek in America Read the extract below taken from The Joy Luck Club by AⅢTan. It is the story of four Chinese women born and raised in China before 1949 and their four American-born daughters

FEATHERS FROM A THOUSAND LI AWAY

Amy Tan 1. The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. This bird, boasted the market vendor, was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose, and now look! —it is too beautiful to eat.

2. Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of li wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey she cooed to the swan: “In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She

will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan—a creature that became more than what was hoped for.”

3. But when she arrived in the new country, the immigration officials pulled her swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. And then she had to fill out so many forms she forgot why she had come and what she had left behind.

4. Now the woman was old. And she had a daughter who grew up speaking only English and swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow. For a long time now the woman had wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her, “This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions.” And she wai ted, year after year, for the day she could tell her daughter this in perfect American English.

5. Jing-Mei Woo

My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.

6. “Of course you can be prodigy, too,” my mother told me when I was nine. “You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? He r daughter, she is only best tricky.”

7. America was where all my mother’s hopes lay. She had come here after losing everything: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.

8. We didn’t immediately pick the right kind of prodigy. At first my mother thought I could be a Chinese Shirley Temple'. We’d watch Shirley’s old movies on TV as though they were training films. M y mother would poke my arm and say, “Ni kan”— you watch. And I would see Shirley tapping her feet, or singing a sailor song, or pursing her lips into a very round O while saying, “Oh my goodness.”

9. “Ni kan,” said my mother as Shirley’s eyes flooded with tears. “You already know how. Don’t need talent for crying!”

10. Soon after my mother got this idea about Shirley Temple, she took me to a beauty training school in the Mission district and put me in the hands of a student who could barely hold the scissors without shaking. Instead of getting big fat curls, I emerged with an uneven mass of crinkly black fuzz. My mother dragged me off to the bathroom and tried to wet down my hair as if I had done this on purpose.

11. The instructor of the beauty training school had to lop off these soggy clumps to make my hair even again. “Peter Pan" is very popular these days,” the instructor assured my mother. I now had hair the length of a boy’s, with straight-across bangs that hung at a slant two inches above eyebrows. I liked the haircut and it made me actually look forward to my future fame.

12. In fact, in the beginning, I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so. I pictured

this prodigy part of me as many different images, trying each one on for size. I was a dainty ballerina girl standing by the curtains, waiting to hear the right music that would send me floating on my tiptoes. I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity. I was Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air.

13. In all of my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything.

14. But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient. “If you don’t hurry up and get me out of here, I’m disappearing for good,” it warned. “And then you’ll always be nothing.”

15. Every night after dinner, my mother and I would sit at the Formica kitchen table. She would present new tests, taking her examples from stories of amazing children she had read in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, or Good Housekeeping, Reader’s Digest, and a dozen other magazines she kept in a pile in our bathroom. My mother got these magazines from people whose houses she cleaned. And since she cleaned many houses each week, we had a great assortment. She would look through them all, searching for stories about remarkable children.

16. The first night she brought out a story about a three-year-old boy who knew the capitals of all the states and even most of the European countries. A teacher was quoted as saying the little boy could also pronounce the names of the foreign cities correctly.

17. “What’s the capital of Finland?” my mother asked me, looking at the magazine story.

18. All I knew was the capital of California, because Sacramento lived on in Chinatown. “Nairobi!”

I guessed, saying the most foreign word I could think of. She checked to see if that was possibly one way to pronounce “Helsinki” before showing me the answer.

19. The tests got harder—multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London.

20. One night I had to look at a page from the Bible for three minutes add then report everything

I could remember. “Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance and... that’s all I remember, Ma,” I said.

21. And after se eing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations. Before going to bed that night, I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink and when I saw only my face staring back—and that it would always be this ordinary face—I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high-pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.

22. And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me—because I had never seen that face before. I looked at my reflection, blinking so I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. This girl and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts, or

rather thoughts filled with lots of won’ts. I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not.

7.2 reading more

Of all ruins, that of a fine man is the saddest

Sir Arthur Conaan Doyle

THE BUM

William Somerset Maugham

1. I had come to Vera Cruz from Mexico City to catch one of the Ward Company s white cool ships to Yucatan; and found to my dismay that, a dock strike having been declared over-night, my ship would not put in. I was stuck in Vera Cruz.

2. I took a room in the Hotel Diligencias overlooking the plaza and spent the morning looking at the sights of the town. Having seen all that was to be seen. 1 sat down in the coolness of the arcade that surrounded the square and ordered a drink. I watched the people crossing the square; Negroes. Indians. Creoles, and Spanish, the motley people of the Spanish Main; and they varied in color from ebony to ivory.

3. My attention was attracted by a beggar who had hair and beard of a red so vivid that it was startling. He wore only a pair of trousers and a cotton singlet, but they were tatters, grimy and foul, that barely held together. I have never seen anyone so thin; his legs, his naked arms were but skin and bone, and through the rents of his singlet you saw every rib of his wasted body '; you could count the bones of his dust-covered feet.

4. He was the only one of the beggars who did not speak. He did not even hold out his hand, he merely looked at you, but with such wretchedness in his eyes, such despair in his attitude, it was dreadful; he stood on and on, silent and immobile, gazing steadfastly, and then, if you took no notice of him, he moved slowly to the next table. I had nothing to give him and when he came to me, so that he should not wait in vain, I shook my head.

5. But he paid no attention. He stood in front of me, for as long as he stood at the other tables, looking at me with tragic eyes. I have never seen such a wreck of humanity. There was something

terrifying in his appearance. He did not look quite sane. At length he passed on.

6. It was still very hot, towards evening a breath of air coming in through the windows tempted me into the plaza. I saw once more that strange, red-bearded fellow and watched him stand motionless, with the crushed and piteous air, before one table after another. He did not stop before mine. I supposed he remembered me from the morning and having failed to get anything from me then thought it useless to try again.

7. Since there was nothing else to do, I stayed on till the thinning crowd suggested it was bed-time.' I had suddenly a strange feeling that I had seen him before. I felt sure that I had come across him, but when and where I could not tell.

8. I spent my second day at Vera Cruz as I had spent the first. But I watched for the coming of the red-haired beggar, and as he stood at the tables near mine I examined him with attention. I felt certain now that I had seen him somewhere. I even felt certain that I had known him and talked to him, but I still could recall none of the circumstances. Once more he passed my table without stopping and when his eyes met mine I looked in them for some gleam of recollection. Nothing. I racked my brains. I went over in my mind the possible occasions when I might have met him. Not to be able to place him exasperated me as it does when you try to remember a name that is on the tip of your tongue and yet eludes you. The day wore on.

9. It was Sunday and the plaza was more crowded than ever. As usual the red-haired beggar came along, a terrifying figure in his silence. He was standing in front of a table only two from mine, without a gesture. Then I saw the policeman who at intervals tried to protect the public from the importunities of all these beggars sneak round a column and give him a resounding whack with his thong. His thin body winced, but he made no protest and showed no resentment. The cruel stripe had whipped my memory and suddenly I remembered.

10. Not his name; that escaped me still, but everything else. He must have recognized me, for I have not changed very much in twenty years, and that was why after that first morning he had never paused in front of my table. Yes, it was twenty years since I had known him. I was spending a winter in Rome and every evening I used to dine in a restaurant in the Via Sistina where you got excellent macaroni and a good bottle of wine. It was frequented by a little band of English and American art students, and one or two writers; and we used to stay late into the night engaged in interminable arguments upon art and literature. He was only a boy then, he could not have been more than 22; and with his blue eyes, straight nose, and red hair he was pleasing to look at. I remembered that he spoke a great deal of Central America, he had had a job with the American Fruit Company, but had thrown it over because he wanted to be a writer. He was not popular among us because he was arrogant and we were none of us old enough to take the arrogance of youth with tolerance. He thought us poor fish and did not hesitate to tell us so. He would not show us his work, because our praise meant nothing to him and he despised our censure, his vanity was