5th box -Flashcards

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1. lesson36

Camp Safety For years a furniture salesman from Connecticut, Mitch Kurman, has toiled ceaselessly for the passage of a youth summer camp safety bill. Why? Because his son David was drowned when his canoe overturned in the raging waters of the Penobscot River. The camp counselors leading the trip were inexperienced, had blundered into dangerous waters, and had no life jackets for the canoers. Mr. Kurman was naturally dazed by the tragedy. But rather than merely mourn his loss and wait for the painful memory to subside, he began a campaign that took him on hundreds of journeys to speak to governors, senators, and congressmen. He had learned that 250,000 children are injured or maimed annually in camp accidents. It was hard for him to comprehend why we have laws that outlaw mistreatment of alligators, coyotes, birds and bobcats, but we have no law to prevent disasters to children in summer camps. Wherever he went, Mr. Kurman was commended for his efforts, but he received only trifling support from the lawmakers. One bill, requiring people to put on life preservers when they took to the water, died in the final reading. Another such bill exempted private ponds and lakes, exactly the waters where most summer camps are located. Even a bill calling for a survey of camp safety conditions was at first defeated. Mr. Kurman's struggle so far has been in vain, but he continues his battle to avoid a repetition of the accident that took his son's life.
A Helping Hand Youth workers Bill Nash and Jim Boyle are house hunters, not so much for a house as for a concerned family willing to house and feed troubled youngsters temporarily. They try to give prompt attention to those who cannot or will not live at home. For some, leaving home may have been the result of a hasty decision, based on a scorching remark and the subsequent tempest within the family. The cooling-off period away from the family is a time to soothe feelings. With sympathetic outsiders, youngsters have a chance to redeem them-selves. The hope, of course, is that they will learn to relate to adults again and quickly resume a normal life of harmony with their own families. Some people refrain from offering their homes, expressing vague fears of the harmful effects on their own children. But this has not been the case, even when the problem of the "visitor" was the illegal use of narcotics. One parent remarked, "With us it worked the other way. The horror of drugs became real to my own son. We got a lot more than we gave."
Bet on the Blond Can women excel as jockeys in big-time horse racing? Years ago the feminine touch was kept out of racing, but now at tracks all over the country women mount horses and compete with men, many of whom dread the whole idea. Their masculine image, they feel, may be threatened.* Also, some offer the weak argument that females are a menace on the track. But, as we all know, we should resist* the tendency to underestimate the power of women. A few female jockeys have been victorious in numerous races, and this is probably what has put the male jockeys in a rage.* It would be wise if the men were more flexible in their attitudes toward women athletes.
Weight-watchers Judging from the popularity of books on dieting, one would think an epidemic of obesity is sweeping the nation. Although being fat is not contagious, it is a condition not to be sneered at since it affects one-fourth of all Americans. Without magnifying the problem, professionals concerned with the nation's health, from chiropractors to medical specialists, agree that being overweight is a major obstacle to good health. They point out that people will readily see the need to ventilate their homes for fresh air to get rid of vermin that may cause disease, but they jeopardize their health by eating the wrong foods or the wrong amount of foods. Coincidentally, a recent survey of employment agencies showed that obesity has a negative effect on a person's chances of landing a job. While the job-seeker is asking about salary and pensions, the employer is thinking about the worker's healthand weight is a vital consideration when it comes to injuries, disease, and absenteeism. Some municipal jobs, in fact, do require an applicant to be within normal weight range, and one New York bank insists on an oral understanding that applicants will take off excess weight. As the Wall Street journal put it, "Fat people often find slim pickings in the job market."

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