新视野英语完整教材1-10

Preview

Currently, morals are very confusing, even not wanted, by many people. Television and films have helped change present standards of right and wrong behavior. Every day, unconscious brain mapping is imposed on trusting victims who are not aware of how seeing repeated images, acts and ideas affects their thinking. People see thousands of different ways to behave and more challenges to authority than ever before in history. What used to be wrong or not suitable is presented as not in fashion or in the best interests of the individual. Society has thus been robbed of clear standards to guide human behavior. Instead, feelings dictate decisions: if something feels good, do it. And acquiring money blinds people so much, they do not even recognize that morals no longer exist. Careful, continual use of responsible moral standards such as those discussed in this unit can benefit our common good.

Being Honest and Open

My grandparents believed that you were either honest or you were not. There was no middle point. They had a simple saying hanging on their living-room wall: "Life is like a field of newly fallen snow. Where I choose to walk every step will show." They didn’t have to talk about it; they demonstrated this truth by their life style.

They understood instinctively that integrity involves having a personal standard of morality and boundaries that does not sell out to convenience and that is not relative to the situation at hand. Integrity is an inner compass for judging your behavior.

Unfortunately, integrity is in short supply today —and getting scarcer. But it is the real bottom line in every area of society and a discipline we must demand of ourselves. A good test for this value is to apply what I call the "Integrity Triangle"，which consists of three key principles:

Stand firmly for your convictions when confronted with personal pressure. There’s a story told about a surgical nurse’s assistance during her first day on the medical team at a well-known hospital. She was responsible for ensuring that all surgical instruments and materials were accounted for during an operation. The nurse said to the surgeon, "You’ve only removed 11 sponges, and we used 12. We need to find the last one."

"I removed them all," the surgeon assured h er. "We’ll close now."

"You can’t do that, sir," protested the nurse. "Think of the patient."

Smiling, the surgeon lifted his foot and showed the nurse t he twelfth sponge. "You’ll do just fine in this or any other hospital," he assured her.

When you know you’re right, you can’t concede.

Always give others credit that is rightfully theirs. Don’t be afraid of those who might have a better idea or who might even be more intelligent than you are.

David Ogilvy, founder of the advertising firm Ogilvy& Mather, clarified this point to his newly appointed office heads by sending each of them a Russian nesting doll with five progressively smaller figures inside.

His message was contained in the smallest doll: "If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, Ogilvy & Mather will become a company of giants." And that is precisely what O&M became — one of the largest and most respected advertising organisations in the world.