Informal Memo Proposal

Date: 19th March, 2012

From: Rebecca

To: Yantai Municipal Government

Subject: More Public Libraries Should Be Built in Yantai

My topic is more public libraries should be built in Yantai. I need to make a report about it. Yantai has only one public library which can not meet Yantai citizen’s need for knowledge. If Yantai has more public libraries, people can get the information they need through these libraries and broaden their minds. It will create a study atmosphere in Yantai and help Yantai become a famous city. It can also bring some opportunities to Yantai. I will send questionnaires to 20 people who live in Yantai about their opinions to build public libraries.

Firstly, more public libraries can meet citizens’ need for knowledge. As we know, Yantai has only one public libraries but the city has a population of more than 6.4 billion. People who live far from the only public library do not want to get books through the library because of the distance. If we do this research, we will know how many libraries they need and where these libraries should be built. The citizens will be satisfied with our government.

Secondly, it will create a study atmosphere in Yantai and make the city famous for it. According to the national reading investigation of Chinese Institute of Publishing Science, we read only 4.5 books one person per year. It only because of we do not have time to read but also because there are not enough books for us to read.

Reading needs environment. If there are a lot of bookstores, libraries for citizens, we will create a famous study atmosphere. Yantai will become famous because of it.

Thirdly, building more public libraries will bring Yantai more opportunities. Our country wants to develop cultural undertakings and cultural industries. Building more public libraries can actively respond to the call of our country. The whole country will focus on Yantai. We will get more investments, more supports from our province even the central of our country.

In conclusion, more public libraries should be built in Yantai. It can meet our citizens’ need for knowledge and information, create a study atmosphere, help Yantai become famous and bring our city more opportunities. In order to know the citizens’ opinions about building public libraries, I want to make a report about it.

第二篇：英文原著a modest proposal(一个小小的建议)

A Modest ProposalA Modest Proposal

(for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from beinga burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial

to the publick.)

by Dr. Jonathan Swift. 1729

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A Modest ProposalIt is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town,or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, orsix children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood,are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for theirhelpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work,or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, orsell themselves to the Barbadoes.

I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number ofchildren in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, andfrequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom,a very great additional grievance; and therefore whoever could find out afair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound and usefulmembers of the common-wealth, would deserve so well of the publick, asto have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only forthe children of professed beggars: it is of a much greater extent, and shalltake in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born ofparents in effect as little able to support them, as those who demand ourcharity in the streets.

As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years, uponthis important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of ourprojectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in theircomputation. It is true, a child just dropt from its dam, may be supportedby her milk, for a solar year, with little other nourishment: at most notabove the value of two shillings, which the mother may certainly get, orthe value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging; and it is exactlyat one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner, as,instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting foodand raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary,contribute to the feeding, and partly to the cloathing of many thousands.

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A Modest ProposalThere is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it willprevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of womenmurdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us, sacrificingthe poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the expence than theshame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhumanbreast.

The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned onemillion and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundredthousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtractthirty thousand couple, who are able to maintain their own children,(although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the presentdistresses of the kingdom) but this being granted, there will remain anhundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand, forthose women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or diseasewithin the year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousandchildren of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, How thisnumber shall be reared, and provided for? which, as I have already said,under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all themethods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraftor agriculture; we neither build houses, (I mean in the country) norcultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing tillthey arrive at six years old; except where they are of towardly parts,although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier; during whichtime they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers: As Ihave been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, whoprotested to me, that he never knew above one or two instances under theage of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickestproficiency in that art.

I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve yearsold, is no saleable commodity, and even when they come to this age, theywill not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half a crown atmost, on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parentsor kingdom, the charge of nutriments and rags having been at least four

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A Modest Proposaltimes that value.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hopewill not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintancein London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a mostdelicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked,or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or aragoust.

I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of thehundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twentythousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to bemales; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine, andmy reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, acircumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore, one male willbe sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousandmay, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune,through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suckplentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat for agood table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends,and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make areasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be verygood boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, encreaseth to 28 pounds.

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper forlandlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seemto have the best title to the children.

Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentifulin March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, aneminent French physician, that fish being a prolifick dyet, there are morechildren born in Roman Catholick countries about nine months after Lent,the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of Popishinfants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it will have

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A Modest Proposalone other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of Papists amongus.

I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (inwhich list I reckon all cottagers, labourers, and four-fifths of the farmers)to be about two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe nogentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fatchild, which, as I have said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritivemeat, when he hath only some particular friend, or his own family to dinewith him. Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and growpopular among his tenants, the mother will have eight shillings neat profit,and be fit for work till she produces another child.

Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) mayflea the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will makeadmirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.

As to our City of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose,in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will notbe wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, anddressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs.

A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues Ihighly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to offer arefinement upon my scheme. He said, that many gentlemen of thiskingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want ofvenison might be well supply'd by the bodies of young lads and maidens,not exceeding fourteen years of age, nor under twelve; so great a numberof both sexes in every country being now ready to starve for want of workand service: And these to be disposed of by their parents if alive, orotherwise by their nearest relations. But with due deference to so excellenta friend, and so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in hissentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance assured mefrom frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean,like that of our school-boys, by continual exercise, and their tastedisagreeable, and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as tothe females, it would, I think, with humble submission, be a loss to the

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A Modest Proposalpublick, because they soon would become breeders themselves: Andbesides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt tocensure such a practice, (although indeed very unjustly) as a littlebordering upon cruelty, which, I confess, hath always been with me thestrongest objection against any project, how well soever intended.

But in order to justify my friend, he confessed, that this expedient wasput into his head by the famous Salmanaazor, a native of the islandFormosa, who came from thence to London, above twenty years ago, andin conversation told my friend, that in his country, when any young personhappened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons ofquality, as a prime dainty; and that, in his time, the body of a plump girl offifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the Emperor, was soldto his imperial majesty's prime minister of state, and other great mandarinsof the court in joints from the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neitherindeed can I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump younggirls in this town, who without one single groat to their fortunes, cannotstir abroad without a chair, and appear at a play-house and assemblies inforeign fineries which they never will pay for; the kingdom would not bethe worse.

Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about thatvast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed; and Ihave been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken, toease the nation of so grievous an incumbrance. But I am not in the leastpain upon that matter, because it is very well known, that they are everyday dying, and rotting, by cold and famine, and filth, and vermin, as fastas can be reasonably expected. And as to the young labourers, they arenow in almost as hopeful a condition. They cannot get work, andconsequently pine away from want of nourishment, to a degree, that if atany time they are accidentally hired to common labour, they have notstrength to perform it, and thus the country and themselves are happilydelivered from the evils to come.

I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. Ithink the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and

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A Modest Proposalmany, as well as of the highest importance.

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen thenumber of Papists, with whom we are yearly over-run, being the principalbreeders of the nation, as well as our most dangerous enemies, and whostay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to thePretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many goodProtestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country, than stay athome and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.

Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of theirown, which by law may be made liable to a distress, and help to pay theirlandlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money athing unknown.

Thirdly, Whereas the maintainance of an hundred thousand children,from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed at less than tenshillings a piece per annum, the nation's stock will be thereby encreasedfifty thousand pounds per annum, besides the profit of a new dish,introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom, whohave any refinement in taste. And the money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.

Fourthly, The constant breeders, besides the gain of eight shillingssterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge ofmaintaining them after the first year.

Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns, wherethe vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts fordressing it to perfection; and consequently have their houses frequented byall the fine gentlemen, who justly value themselves upon their knowledgein good eating; and a skilful cook, who understands how to oblige hisguests, will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.

Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wisenations have either encouraged by rewards, or enforced by laws andpenalties. It would encrease the care and tenderness of mothers towardstheir children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poorbabes, provided in some sort by the publick, to their annual profit instead

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A Modest Proposalof expence. We should soon see an honest emulation among the marriedwomen, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market. Menwould become as fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy,as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sow when theyare ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent apractice) for fear of a miscarriage.

Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, theaddition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barrel'd beef:the propagation of swine's flesh, and improvement in the art of makinggood bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs,too frequent at our tables; which are no way comparable in taste ormagnificence to a well grown, fat yearly child, which roasted whole willmake a considerable figure at a Lord Mayor's feast, or any other publickentertainment. But this, and many others, I omit, being studious of brevity.

Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constantcustomers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merrymeetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublinwould take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest ofthe kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) theremaining eighty thousand.

I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against thisproposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will bethereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and 'twas indeedone principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader willobserve, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom ofIreland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be uponEarth. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing ourabsentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither cloaths, nor housholdfurniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterlyrejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Ofcuring the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in ourwomen: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Oflearning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and

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A Modest Proposalthe inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions,nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another atthe very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sellour country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have atleast one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spiritof honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolutioncould now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediatelyunite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and thegoodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of justdealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.

Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the likeexpedients, 'till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will everbe some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.

But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years withoffering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing ofsuccess, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholly new, soit hath something solid and real, of no expence and little trouble, full inour own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobligingEngland. For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and fleshbeing of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt,although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat upour whole nation without it.

After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion, as to rejectany offer, proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent,cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall beadvanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire theauthor or authors will be pleased maturely to consider two points. First, Asthings now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for ahundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly, There being around million of creatures in humane figure throughout this kingdom,whose whole subsistence put into a common stock, would leave them indebt two million of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars byprofession, to the bulk of farmers, cottagers and labourers, with their

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A Modest Proposalwives and children, who are beggars in effect; I desire those politicianswho dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an answer,that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would notat this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a yearold, in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetualscene of misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppressionof landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, thewant of common sustenance, with neither house nor cloaths to cover themfrom the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect ofintailing the like, or greater miseries, upon their breed for ever.

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personalinterest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work, having no othermotive than the publick good of my country, by advancing our trade,providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to therich. I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; theyoungest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.

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