新概念二背诵500遍后的感受[范文模版]

第一篇：新概念二背诵500遍后的感受[范文模版]

免费？宅在家学英语？怎么报名？

最牛英语口语培训模式：躺在家里练口语，全程外教一对一，三个月畅谈无阻！

洛基英语，免费体验全部在线一对一课程：（报名网址）

许多大师在学习语言时都选择了背诵这一手段。背诵需要人耐得住乏味、也需要有足够的耐心和毅力，这个方法虽然简单、却要你付出大把时间。那么背诵究竟能不能对英语学习起到作用？下面就跟大家分享一篇网上的文章，它应该已经震撼和激励了不少人，希望对你也有所启示。

据专家说当背诵的熟练程度达到不经思索脱口而出时就产生了所谓的舌尖效应。背诵一篇新概念2的文章大概需要15-20遍左右（本人需要20遍），新3的文章长度和难度都有所增加，可能需要重复更多的次数。当你能背下来一篇文章时，你会觉得虽然不用看书，能背下来但并不是很熟练，背一句脑子总在想着下一句是什么。这样的背诵不能起到学好英语的目的。有些人能背下新2新3但总觉得收效甚微，就是因为他没达到脱口而出的地步。有些人反对用背诵法来学英语因为这没有什么效果。其实背诵法有没有效果，要看你是否达到了脱口而出的境地。这时产生了舌尖效应，汉语思维将不再阻碍英语语感和英语思维，你会有一种豁然贯通的感觉。

为了证实舌尖效应，本人亲自做了试验。首先用网上流传的循环背诵大表制定了背诵新概念2的计划。然后把音频文件拷入到mp3播放器中反复听，反复模仿跟读，每篇文章都要模仿得惟妙惟肖，然后背诵。当背完整本新概念2时，我又在此基础上将每篇文章背诵了将近500遍左右，终于能在78分钟之内背完所有文章。每一篇文章都达到了脱口而出的地步，产生了舌尖效应，96篇文章背下来并没经过大脑思考，完全是嘴巴和舌头在起作用，你会有一种和英语融为一体的感觉。连读、吞音、爆破、语调、节奏等这些所谓的发音难点都自然而然的被攻破了。随便拿一篇英文来读，你会有一种洋腔洋调读英文的感觉。听写VOA慢速英语时感到前所未有的轻松，只需听一两遍就能听懂，生词几乎影响不了我对新闻的理解。此时听写VOA不再是以听懂新闻洛基英语是中国英语培训市场上的一朵奇葩，是全球已被验证的东方人英语学习的最佳模式。洛基英语是中国专业在线英语培训机构，通过电话英语、视频英语与外教一对一的模式提高学员英语口语水平，提供英语口语培训，成人英语培训，商务英语培训，企业英语培训等课程。

免费？宅在家学英语？怎么报名？

为目的了，而是以积累词汇为目的了。因为你听写过的生词，查过字典印象非常深刻。我试听了VOA标准英语和CNN，语速都能接受，并不觉得快，并且能听懂一小部分。虽然只有一小部分但我却有成功的喜悦。我尝到了背诵法的成功。我总共用了112天。达到了舌尖效应，听力、口语有了大幅度上升。而在此之前，我根本听不懂VOA，口语也只会说几句日常用语，112天让我有一种脱胎换骨的感觉。我终于明白了为何许多英语专家和大师们都推崇背诵法学英语，这确实是比较快的方法。

传统的学习法：单词＋语法＋阅读＋做题对考试有些用处，但我用此法学了近10年英语却一无所成。要提高英语水平首先要打通两关：耳朵和嘴巴。最好的方法就是听说结合。不要忘了“听”这个字左边是一个“口”。听和说是不分家的。要提高听力必然要说，要随心所欲说也必须要不断听。记住听的时候要一句一句模仿，播音员怎么说你怎么说，要练的尽可能和播音员相近。不要理会所说的句子是什么含义，更不要去翻译，你所做的就是鹦鹉学舌。要以句子为单位，不要以段落为单位。当听力水平提高了才可以段落为单位模仿、复述。你觉得老外语速快是因为你的嘴巴不能以这样快的速度来说，能看得懂文章却听不懂，是因为你不能像老外那样正确地读这篇文章。你读的文章和老外对比会发现，你读得不对，没有掌握发音技巧，尤其是连读、爆破音、省音、节奏等。如果你读得和老外一样正确，你可不可能听不懂呢？记住：你能正确说出来，让老外读给你听，你也能听懂。你能以多快速度来说英语，你的耳朵就能接受多快的语速。听力还有一个难点就是你对常用单词和短语的反应速度。用我说的方法边听、边模仿再背诵就可以突破这个难点。我之所以能听懂VOA慢速英语，是因为500遍的模仿背诵，使我对新2的掌握程度达到了“化”的地步。新2中都是常用的单词、短语和句型，而VOA慢速英语常用词汇、短语和句型，大多数都包含在新2中了，因此听懂就容易了。原先做listen to this的题觉得挺难，现在觉得并不难了。

洛基英语是中国英语培训市场上的一朵奇葩，是全球已被验证的东方人英语学习的最佳模式。洛基英语是中国专业在线英语培训机构，通过电话英语、视频英语与外教一对一的模式提高学员英语口语水平，提供英语口语培训，成人英语培训，商务英语培训，企业英语培训等课程。

免费？宅在家学英语？怎么报名？

最后介绍两种方法，来克服厌学、浮躁的心态。有不少人不能坚持到底学英语，最后只能放弃，主要是心态浮躁、急于求成，学习效果不明显。要克服也不难。我是这样做的：我在网上下载了一些有关成功人士学习英语的励志文章，他们的故事令我感动。每当我学累了，坚持不下去了，就会读一读这些文章。读完之后，敬佩之感油然而生，一股巨大的动力激励我继续学下去。还有一种方法就是互相激励。找一些志同道合的朋友一起学，学不下去时互相鼓励。也可在网上找一些爱好英语的朋友，大家互相鼓励，互相帮助学好英语。自我激励也是一种方法，但效果不如上述两种。112天的坚持就是用了上边的方法。最后祝愿大家人人都能成为英语的主人。

洛基英语是中国英语培训市场上的一朵奇葩，是全球已被验证的东方人英语学习的最佳模式。洛基英语是中国专业在线英语培训机构，通过电话英语、视频英语与外教一对一的模式提高学员英语口语水平，提供英语口语培训，成人英语培训，商务英语培训，企业英语培训等课程。

第二篇：新概念二背诵500遍后的感受

免费？宅在家学英语？怎么报名？

最牛英语口语培训模式：躺在家里练口语，全程外教一对一，三个月畅谈无阻！

洛基英语，免费体验全部在线一对一课程： http://www.xiexiebang.comN，语速都能接受，并不觉得快，并且能听懂一小部分。虽然只有一小部分但我却有成功的喜悦。我尝到了背诵法的成功。我总共用了112天。达到了舌尖效应，听力、口语有了大幅度上升。而在此之前，我根本听不懂VOA，口语也只会说几句日常用语，112天让我有一种脱胎换骨的感觉。我终于明白了为何许多英语专家和大师们都推崇背诵法学英语，这确实是比较快的方法。

传统的学习法：单词＋语法＋阅读＋做题对考试有些用处，但我用此法学了近10年英语却一无所成。要提高英语水平首先要打通两关：耳朵和嘴巴。最好的方法就是听说结合。不要忘了“听”这个字左边是一个“口”。听和说是不分家的。要提高听力必然要说，要随心所欲说也必须要不断听。记住听的时候要一句一句模仿，播音员怎么说你怎么说，要练的尽可能和播音员相近。不要理会所说的句子是什么含义，更不要去翻译，你所做的就是鹦鹉学舌。要以句子为单位，不要以段落为单位。当听力水平提高了才可以段落为单位模仿、复述。你觉得老外语速快是因为你的嘴巴不能以这样快的速度来说，能看得懂文章却听不懂，是因为你不能像老外那样正确地读这篇文章。你读的文章和老外对比会发现，你读得不对，没有掌握发音技巧，尤其是连读、爆破音、省音、节奏等。如果你读得和老外一样正确，你可不可能听不懂呢？记住：你能正确说出来，让老外读给你听，你也能听懂。你能以多快速度来说英语，你的耳朵就能接受多快的语速。听力还洛基英语是中国英语培训市场上的一朵奇葩，是全球已被验证的东方人英语学习的最佳模式。洛基英语是中国专业在线英语培训机构，通过电话英语、视频英语与外教一对一的模式提高学员英语口语水平，提供英语口语培训，成人英语培训，商务英语培训，企业英语培训等课程。

免费？宅在家学英语？怎么报名？

有一个难点就是你对常用单词和短语的反应速度。用我说的方法边听、边模仿再背诵就可以突破这个难点。我之所以能听懂VOA慢速英语，是因为500遍的模仿背诵，使我对新2的掌握程度达到了“化”的地步。新2中都是常用的单词、短语和句型，而VOA慢速英语常用词汇、短语和句型，大多数都包含在新2中了，因此听懂就容易了。原先做listen to this的题觉得挺难，现在觉得并不难了。

最后介绍两种方法，来克服厌学、浮躁的心态。有不少人不能坚持到底学英语，最后只能放弃，主要是心态浮躁、急于求成，学习效果不明显。要克服也不难。我是这样做的：我在网上下载了一些有关成功人士学习英语的励志文章，他们的故事令我感动。每当我学累了，坚持不下去了，就会读一读这些文章。读完之后，敬佩之感油然而生，一股巨大的动力激励我继续学下去。还有一种方法就是互相激励。找一些志同道合的朋友一起学，学不下去时互相鼓励。也可在网上找一些爱好英语的朋友，大家互相鼓励，互相帮助学好英语。自我激励也是一种方法，但效果不如上述两种。112天的坚持就是用了上边的方法。最后祝愿大家人人都能成为英语的主人。

洛基英语是中国英语培训市场上的一朵奇葩，是全球已被验证的东方人英语学习的最佳模式。洛基英语是中国专业在线英语培训机构，通过电话英语、视频英语与外教一对一的模式提高学员英语口语水平，提供英语口语培训，成人英语培训，商务英语培训，企业英语培训等课程。

免费？宅在家学英语？怎么报名？

“成千上万人疯狂下载。。。

更多价值连城的绝密英语学习资料，洛基内部秘密英语，技巧，策略

请在 网上 申请报名”

洛基英语是中国英语培训市场上的一朵奇葩，是全球已被验证的东方人英语学习的最佳模式。洛基英语是中国专业在线英语培训机构，通过电话英语、视频英语与外教一对一的模式提高学员英语口语水平，提供英语口语培训，成人英语培训，商务英语培训，企业英语培训等课程。

第三篇：背诵新概念心得体会

背诵新概念心得体会（转）

看到大家那么热烈地讨论背诵新概念，不禁有一点凑凑热闹的冲动。

我本人学习英语新概念四已经有很多年了，从1997年把老版本的NC4作为阅读材料，到1999年5月决心

背诵它，直到2004年才真正意义上的将NC4背熟（能把新版本48篇文章连续串背两个多小时背完，基本不

出现大的错误）。历时有7，8年的光景。期间经历了多少的探索，苦闷辛酸，兴奋，激情，迷狂，淡泊，总之学习新概念的过程也是我对学习英语一个探索思考的过程进而也是我的对自我教育乃至整个人生一种

感受至深、启我思考的体验。背诵新概念4给我的一点点看得到得回报是，我的4、6级考试都是在没有专

门进行考前训练的情况下考出了比较好的成绩，4级94，6级92分。研究生英语考试88分（用背NC4的方法，选背了朱泰祺老先生的考研复习指南，作过少量的真题）。真正的回报却远不止于此。由于时间关系，我不能谈得很详细，只能很简单地谈谈我背NC4的一点点历程。

1、最开始，1999年5月－8月。大跃进似的激情——打算三个月搞定NC4。实际上三个月过去了，真正背过的文章也只有10多篇，而随时能脱口而出的就仅有2、3篇了。大多背过的文章，都是模模糊糊不知所云了。那段时间具体投入的时间是很集中的，用的是李阳的方法，记得当时很多天晚上梦话都是背的英文，怎么效果会如此差呢？感觉打击太大。2、1999－2001年，彷徨、怀疑的阶段。尝试了很多其他的方法，但学习焦点自问并没有聚在NC4上。也还在背NC4，但是，陷入了背了忘，忘了又背，背了后面忘了前面的怪圈。能够勉勉强强背下10多课，能随时脱口而出的仅有5，6篇。只有安慰自己，因为是工科学生，并没有太多时间花在英语上。3、2002年，充满转机的一年。这年的寒假，即2002年2月我没回家在北京新东方学校学习GRE，说实在的GRE培训让我多多少少对新东方有些失望，但是在寒假的系列讲座却对我很有影响。第一，我发现江博在讲座中引背新概念四的几段还没有我背得熟，背得标准。对自己背新概念又有了些许的信心。第二，杜子华老师演讲时，讲了学英语的几大原则。对我很有启发，觉得背新概念四也需要以兴趣引导顺序。第三，俞敏洪演讲中提到的学习英语初期就是“精深远大于博大”。让我不得不反思，我在背NC4中是不是真正做到了。另外，北外的熊德兰教授，让我知道“课文”的真正涵义。钟道隆老师让我知道习惯的力量，还有听写是一种最不易疲劳的综合学习。（这里都不作展开讲）仔细研究NC4，发现内容也并不多，不过750句。按李阳的比较机械的方法，一天2句话一年也就搞定了。何况，每篇文章都是一个和谐统一的整体，逻辑结构都很严谨，文字又是琅琅上口，优美异常，相当多的文章还和现实生活息息相关，更易于记忆。经过一番思考，决定再下决心背诵NC4。并且规定自己，在这个较长的阶段学习英语就是简单的一件事——背诵NC4,学习英语＝背诵NC4＋大量泛读自己想获得信息的英文资料。目标明确了，给自己一个最低的标准，即每天最少2句NC4的句子。4、2003－2004年，完善方法的阶段。一位在新东方兼职作老师的同学与我聊到新概念四，我给他背了几课，觉得我确实比较熟。突然，他叫我把背过的文章一句一句翻译成中文，并讲解一番。我立马伸嘴结舌。每一句的意思都无比清楚，但是用中文恰如其分地翻译确实有很大问题。这时候，我才深切地体会到，学习NC4重在文化理解与文字翻译上。于是，在背诵的同时，仔细品味译文翻译，进行英汉快速互译，并且举一反三进行造句或者复述，再把它们用在日常生活中就变成我消化背诵的主要方法了（当然，这时我开始背诵中文译文了）。有趣的是，最终得出结论——“当教新概念四的英语老师”是促进你学习及活背NC4的最好方法。从这一点讲，“在新东方得到最大培养和提高的主要是教师而非学生”，这种评价我是深以为然的。又一次，新东方学员的新概念班结课时有一个背诵大赛，我碰巧观摩了一下，我发现能连续背诵5课以上的学员几乎没有。我自己试了试，也就能连续选背最熟的文章10多篇，其他的或多或少需要复习一些时间。于是，开始了连续5课串背的训练。这样在2004年的10月终于有了连续串背整本书的成绩。死记是伴随着活用的，这样死记才会记的牢、记得有生命。活用没有死记，总归是无源之水，无根之木。如果没有那个“一”，又谈何举一反三，闻一而知十，一通百通，万法归一呢？广阔的生活空间就是你活用的场所是你体验的场所。在没有语言环境的情况下学习外语，“先死后活”的方法无疑是比较可行的“捷径”。

5、现在，背诵NC4已经不是最初所认识的那种——一个快捷的学习方法，已经切切实实成了我的一种生活方式。每天晚上是在背诵NC4的过程中昏昏入睡，起床时是在背诵NC4的激情中度过。在看落日时会情不自禁背诵“beauty”，当不得不面临必须要做的事情时对自己背一段“hobby”、“how to grow old”。在无数等车，坐车，闲暇的零碎时间，我可以根据自己的喜好选背一段NC4的文章。其实，时间已经过去7、8年了，也谈不上是什么快捷了。但一切都慢慢变得自然，变得没有刻意和偏执（让我又不得不想到第11课）。并且我知道我这一生都会不断地背诵它、咀嚼它、品味它。学习英文的高一点的境界应该是，英文如同空气与水，你根本意识不到它的存在，但你无时无刻不在使用它，用它传递思想、情感、知识信息。并且使用的熟练程度和习惯与母语没有多大的区别。我们在这种环境中吗？我们在主动营造这种环境并尝试成为自己的生活方式吗？现在想一想，有言道“读书先需识字”，NC4不过是碰巧成为那部英文识字书罢了。真正的读书道路还很长很长。建议听录音选择英版的，在你买《新概念》时配套的磁带就是英版，而且这是经典录音。我听的是美版的，但个人认为英版的好。除非你想学美式发音。

对于《新概念》的学习，首先要告诉你的是一定要下苦功夫，不能嫌烦，坚持下去。而且要从第一册开始学起，这样对于你以后的学习会有好处的。相对来说，第一册简单一些，基本上是一些日常对话，或者简单的叙述性短文。别看简单，如果你能脱口而出的话，就已经相当了不起了，而且，对于第二、三、四册的改写范文，能够打下坚实的基础。背诵二、三、四册全文，理解性的去记忆，无须一字不落，你学英文的目的是为了能够表达思想，而不是单纯的背诵。机械式的背诵只能让你打击自信，失败得更快。要理解性的去背诵，当明白课文的意思时，就要学会去改写它，把范文中所有的文章改写为自己的事情，让自己成为第一人，而不是一个阅读者。这样，你的记忆才能深刻，才能积累语言，迅速的表达思想。书后的练习一定要做，同样也是改写成自己的事情，虚拟一个自己从未做过的事情也可以。只有理解性的记忆才是自己真实拥有的，别“傻背”。磁带要天天听，早、中、晚，各一次。就像你听流行歌曲一样，听多了，记忆自然就深刻了。刚开始，要逐词逐句的听，听出来的要默写出来，不要看书。利用词典去查每个单词的音标、注解。自己写出中文解释，不要看书。最后都写出来了，再和书上对照。准确无误后，就去跟随录音大声的朗读，直到语气、发音和录音相同为止。要保证听完的磁带每隔5－7天就重新听一遍。边听边跟着说。每天不要过多的记忆，有5句话足以，多了什么也记不住，不要去考虑进度，当你对英语有了感觉后，速度是突飞猛进的。心不要太急，戒骄戒躁，就像一个人猛吸一口气，他可以跑得很快，但他永远跑不远。就是这个道理。再背书时，每次都把要被的内容写出来，再和原书去对照，拿着你默写的去背。你的书翻得越少越好！磁带越多听越好。不要平凡更换教材，如果你下决心学《新概念》了，就把它学到底。用不着4册都学完的时候，你就已经能够轻松阅读英文原著了。平时还要多注意创造语言环境，只要有英文的就看，是英文的就听。这样量变才能达到质变。开口说很重要，有朋友一起练更好，没有的话就自己唠叨，自己和自己对话。扮演书中的角色。

第四篇：新概念2背诵500遍后的感受

新概念2背诵500遍后的感受

书读百遍，其意自现。看到一位仁兄真的将新概念2背诵了500遍。这是他的感受，转过来，希望对大家有点儿参考用处。

据专家说当背诵的熟练程度达到不经思索脱口而出时就产生了所谓的舌尖效应。背诵一篇新概念2的文章大概需要15～20遍左右（本人需要20遍）新3的文章长度和难度都有所增加，可能需要重复更多的次数。当你能背下来一篇文章时，你会觉得虽然不用看书，能背下来但并不是很熟练，背一句脑子总在想着下一句是什么。这样的背诵不能起到学好英语的目的。有些人能背下新2新3但总觉得收效甚微，就是因为他没达到脱口而出的地步。有些人反对用背诵法来学英语因为这没有什么效果。其实背诵法有没有效果，要看你是否达到了脱口而出的境地。这时产生了舌尖效应，汉语思维将不在阻碍英语语感和英语思维。你会有一种豁然贯通的感觉。为了证实舌尖效应本人亲自做了试验。首先用网上流传的循环背诵大表制定了背诵新概念2的计划。然后把音频文件拷入到mp3播放器中反复听，反复模仿跟读，每篇文章都要模仿的惟妙惟肖，然后背诵。当背完整本新概念2时，我又在此基础上将每篇文章背诵了将近500遍左右。终于能在78分钟之内背完所有文章。每一篇文章都达到了脱口而出的地步。终于产生了舌尖效应，96篇文章背下来并没经过大脑思考，完全是嘴巴和舌头在起作用，你会有一种和英语融为一体的感觉。连读，吞音，爆破，语调，节奏等这些所谓的发音难点都自然而然的被攻破了。随便拿一篇英文来读，你会有一种洋腔洋调读英文的感觉。听写VOA慢速英语时感到前所未有的轻松，只需听一两遍就能听懂，生词几乎影响不了我对新闻的理解。此时听写VOA不再是以听懂新闻为目的了，而是以积累词汇为目的了。因为你听写过的生词，查过字典印象非常深刻。我试听了VOA标准英语和CNN，语速都能接受，并不觉得快，并且能听懂一小部分。虽然只有一小部分但我却有成功的喜悦。我尝到了背诵法的成功。我总共用了112天。达到了舌尖效应，听力，口语有了大幅度上升。而在此之前，我根本听不懂VOA，口语也只会说几句日常用语。112天让我有一种脱胎换骨的感觉。我终于明白了为何许多英语专家和大师们都推崇背诵法学英语，这确实是比较快的方法。传统的学习法：单词＋语法＋阅读＋做题对考试有些用处，但我用此法学了近10年英语却一无所成。要提高英语水平首先要打通两关：耳朵和嘴巴。最好的方法就是听说结合。不要忘了“听”这个字左边是一个“口”。听和说是不分家的。要提高听力必然要说，要随心所欲说也必须要不断听。要记住听的时候要一句一句模仿，播音员怎么说你怎么说，要练的尽可能和播音员相近。不要理会所说的句子是什么含义，更不要去翻译。你所做的就是鹦鹉学舌。要以句子为单位，不要以段落为单位。当听力水平提高了才可一段落为单位模仿，复述。你觉得老外语速快是因为你的嘴巴不能以这样快的速度来说，能看懂得文章却听不懂，是因为你不能像老外那样正确的读这篇文章。你读的文章和老外对比会发现，你读的不对，没有掌握发音技巧，尤其是连读，爆破音，省音，节奏等。如果你读的和老外一样正确，你可能不可能听不懂呢？记住：你能正确说出来的，让老外读给你听，你也能听懂。你能以多快速度来说英语，你的耳朵就能接受多快的语速。听力还有一个难点就是你对常用单词和短语的反应速度。用我说的方法边听，边模仿再背诵就可以突破这个难点。我只所以能听懂VOA慢速英语，是因为500遍的模仿背诵，使我对新2的掌握程度达到了“化”的地步。新2中的都是常用的单词，短语和句型。而VOA慢速英语常用词汇，短语和句型，大多数都包含在新2中了，因此听懂就容易了。原先做listen to this的题觉得挺难，现在觉得并不难了。我心目中最好的英语教材有：新概念，listen to this ,Oral WorkShop，走遍美国。我要用我的方法循序渐进将他们都学透，我有信心我能成为英语的主人，而不是英语的奴隶。最后介绍两种方法，来克服厌学，浮躁的心态。有不少人不能坚持到底学英语最后只能放弃，主要是心态浮躁，急于求成。学习效果不明显。要克服也不难。我是这样做的：我在网上下载了一些有关成功人士学习英语的励志文章。他们的故事令我感动。每当我学累了，坚持不下去了，我就会读一读这些文章。读完之后，敬佩之感油然而生，一股巨大的动力激励我继续学下去。还有一种方法就是互相激励。找一些志同道合的朋友一起学，学不下去时互相鼓励。也可在网上找一些爱好英语的朋友，大家互相鼓励，互相帮助学好英语。自我激励也是一种方法，但效果不如上述两种方法。112天的坚持就是用了上边的方法。最后祝愿大家人人都能成为英语的主人。

背诵新概念的正确方法和体会http://www.xiexiebang.com 2009-3-9 15:46:29 来源: 综合 新概念作为风靡全球的经典教材，看到大家对它如此的热情，我无比的感动，可见到各位学习它的方法，作为已经“背”完新概念全四册的我，又深表忧虑。两年前，我也是新概念的忠实追随者，买齐全套后，恨不得一个月就把它全部学完，先后尝试过很多的方法，比如听说读写最传统的方法，提的最多的在理解的基础上背诵全文的方法，逆向法等等，可拼命学了半年后收获甚微，期间我不止一次的问自己，大家公认的好教材，为什么就没有多大的进展呢？传统的方法背诵大量的课文后效果并不见好的例子也数不胜数，后来在一个新东方的讲座中我突然醒悟，英语不是用来学的，也不是靠大脑的去背诵就行，英语是一种语言，而不是一门学问，征服它唯一的办法就是机械的操练，直至拖口而出；从那后我彻底改变了观念，就一条：大声的机械的操练。具体操作很简单，在读每一篇课文前先把单词读熟，然后就反复的读课文，直到封上书能拖口而出后再理解课文的意思，先读烂后理解的顺序非常重要，然后就把那页撕了仍掉，再继续下一课，这种用嘴机械的操练与用脑背诵有本质的区别，虽然结果都差不多，最后都能复述完全课文，但效果是天壤之别。

1：读的次数完全不同：背诵第二册一篇课文一般读二十遍就可以了，记忆好的也就读十遍足以，但要靠嘴脱口而出的话至少要200遍以上

2：培养语感的效果完全不同：当你在用传统的方法背诵课文的时候一般先对课文的中文意思有个全面的了解，然后完全是根据对课文的中文理解再逐步的记忆英文，这样长久下去你永远逃不出汉语的干扰，永远学不会真正的纯英语思维，在以后阅读和听英语时你自然也会有一个英译汉的过程，特别是听又快又长的篇章和阅读大量文章时无法提速，如果你从一开始读英文时就养成了避开中文意思，纯英文思维的话，虽然初期有点困难，久而久之就能培养真正的英语语感和思维。

3：能否掌握新概念的真正精髓：很多人都认为新概念的精髓是它课文的内容，于是花了花了大量的工夫在理解的基础上背诵英语，理解的基础上说白了就是依赖中文的过程，并且还提倡什么循环记忆法，把新概念所有的课文内容都记得很牢，说白了也是把汉语意思了如指掌，其实很不然，那些优美的故事根本就不是最重要的，你不可能在每次和人交流时就是把新概念的课文内容背给对方，重要的是能否系统的培养你的语感和英语思维，当你对每篇课文不是靠记忆，而是反复的操练到拖口而出后，随着时间的推移就算内容都忘记了根本就不重要，因为你的语感和英语思维习惯在操练的过程中培养起来了，所以说新概念的经典不是说它的课文内容很重要，而是能系统的培养的你的语感和英语思维习惯，而培养习惯的唯一办法就是疯狂的操练，机械般的操练，而不是靠记住新概念课文的意思，当然，每篇课文操练到拖口而出后也要大概了解一下大概意思。

4：优缺点：传统的背诵方法背得确实要快一点，而机械操练要费时间的多，特别是第三册后面的课文，有些要疯狂机械操练一星期后才能拿下，同时，当你的能力提高后在继续操练下一遍课文时难免会在脑海中浮出本文中文意思，千万要记住抑制它的出现，此时读时最好分点心思在机械操练到拖口而出前最好对课文的中文意思一点都不要了解，以免影响英语思维的习惯，先读后理解和先理解后读的顺序特别重要。

5：总结：“熟读唐诗三百首，不会做诗也会吟”里面强调的也是熟读，而不是靠记忆背诵，很多人都背过新概念或别的教材，时间和精力花了很多，可最后效果还是提不上去，就算他循环再背，也最多把新概念的内容记住了，而语感效果并不好，并且在阅读和听英语时默默养成了英译汉的毛病，阅读和听力永远就不能更进一步的提速和提高，因为他在阅读和听的时候会过分的注意单个词含义，但如果你的英语思维上去了就算有不少的生词和词组你照样可以顺利的继续读下去和听下去，因为你已没有英译汉的习惯了。

当我的书撕到第三册30课的时候我四级就过?四册也基本撕完了,前几册课文的中文大概意思也忘了不少，但深知英语水平比身边那些靠传统背诵，课文内容记得倒深刻的同学强许多，四册完了后我准备用同样的方法机李阳的一本磁带法，只要你的语感和英语思维习惯养成了，根本就不存在听力的问题，一盘VOA足以让你了解到所有连读，吞音等习惯。

tiredjason一个新概念3册背完60篇白痴的最终体会

在网上看得一个神奇故事后，我有种冲动开始背诵新概念3。随之，开始头晕地悬的战斗3册。

首先我必须先讲的背诵后带给我的好处：

1我认为他改变了你的记忆力，加强了很多。

我第1天背了1篇，这是由于我的计划是1天一篇，可是闭上眼睛背了10遍就睡了，可能还梦见PUMA了。随后，第2天照样，背13 EQUALS 1用时少了很多，我归纳为那课短句多好背，我掌握1点背的技巧，而且背的时候专心了，第3天无名女神背了更少的时间，然后睡觉了，失眠，喝茶喝多了，结果没睡着，起来背下篇ALF那傻子的故事，然后关灯，躺床上想睡，以为背课文就跟数山羊似的，结果背了几遍，突然发现自己已经背得不错了，又下篇THE FACTS 又关灯 又背熟 直到5点30分背到7课MUTILATED LADIES 1天我居然背了5篇课文，神奇啊，看了看别人的帖子说什么增加脑皮什么呢，反正是增加了记忆。不过到后面我又慢下来了，学业很重，加之课文加难，长度也大了。有的时候2天一篇吧，再慢的时候没有过了，不过天天我都复习，我一开始是全部复习以前，后来多了，背1遍时间得花很长，是13579 第2天246810 然后又是11 13。那么复习的，我知道可能不是最佳，但是可能是最适合我的。

2背诵带给我语法的进步，以前我语法很次，背着背着，我居然成了我们班最哈好的了

3背诵带给我语感上的进步，外国语言逻辑和中国语言逻辑有很大差异，背诵中慢慢的无形的提高了这方面的能力。有人提倡看中文翻译成英文那么背，我绝对说不，我背诵中从来没背过中文，我说够中文和英文的排列的顺序有很大的差异，你看着中文那么背，无疑是放弃了一个背诵新概念的最大成果，就是背诵中无形的改变了你的英语，也就是说背诵带来了 意境英语，不想中文而背出来，就是想故事情节，不想固有根深蒂固的中文，一个人口语差的原因有一大部分就是这个，你要是实战中口语，先想中文再翻译成英文，必然是不现实的，这就跟你早晨遇见老外 说GOOD MORNING似的 不需要想就说出来，真正的口语者是由心而出的英语，无需经过个中文的过程，如果经历一个中文的过程，你必然口语很次。以前我就是这样的人，心中词汇很多，发音也还好，相对而言，但比我那些词汇和发音差的人口语还次，不能坎坎而谈，表现得遇见一个TOPIC没什么可说的，不是我本身没想法，试问一个英文的TOPIC你能用中文聊几分钟而英语呢？也许不能象母语似的，能说那么多吧。个人认为背诵吧，背诵时候你想着故事的情节，但但偏偏又不想出那句中国话，然后你无形的锻炼的那种母语本能，由心而发，这是我觉得他带给我的巨大变化之1

4提高理念。背诵新概念其实词汇短语句型固然提高，但是很有一种很难说清楚的东西，就是外国人看物的本质，也可以说是逻辑关系，我说不清楚反正你看东西是这样的，外国人角度和你不同，对了我想补充1点，新3新4的背诵者，如果你没看过1，2，应该好好花工夫看1下，里面有大量的有趣的故事，当然不是为了看故事，是为了学习一种中国人很少见的外国式幽默，我不举例子了。

5提高听力。听力里面有3个关键问题，第一单词短语句型数量，第二发音包括连读重音，第3就是句子分析，中国学生最怕的一是连读，二就是定语从句，当你长期背诵新概念中无疑提高你的1，2，3项能力，尤其当你背下来以后听个几十遍，你的感觉会很好，听起来很容易，这样比固有的精听，或者直接参与听力提高了很大的动力，兴趣，如果你听你没听过的内容，你会很快就烦的，也许是因为我是个完美主义者吧，经过数遍听我还听不清楚没句话，我会产生厌恶感。个人认为无论是怎么听，精听，泛听，或者看着听，背完了听，都可以对听力有所提高！

6气息。这点不是关键，由于我背课文是没感情的背，背得很快，啪啦啪啦的背，我感觉气息有所很大的提高。我之所以没有忽略这点进步，是因为我国播音员最早有个快速朗读的训练方法，如果你能1分钟300个字，那么你的气息足够1分钟能说200个字。会很轻松的，个人提倡口语交流时候慢！

7毅力，没什么说的，背完你就知道！

质疑点：

1背如此多的书面课文，必然影响你的口语简练性，和口语性。

2背如此多的书面课文，是否忽略了口语，人类最早产生的是口语！！，随之才有了文字，无疑口语是外语学习者首要目标，而书面语，写作是没有口语重要，文体的问题！可以说2，3，4不是口语文体，而是书面文体，跟口语或者口头表达任务不太样，第1册是口语的，但这种对话形式下的课文如此之简单！说得很好新概念1册是英语的奠基石，但我认为如果有新概念第5册 也应该以口语为主，对话，演讲等等！

第五篇：新概念优美英文背诵短文50篇

Unit1:The Language of Music A painter hangs his or her finished pictures on a wall, and everyone can see it.A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it is performed.Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for the composer is utterly dependent on them.A student of music needs as long and as arduous a training to become a performer as a medical student needs to become a doctor.Most training is concerned with technique, for musicians have to have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a ballet dancer.Singers practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords would be inadequate without controlled muscular support.String players practice moving the fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the bow to and fro with the right arm—two entirely different movements.Singers and instruments have to be able to get every note perfectly in tune.Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes are already there, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner’s responsibility to tune the instrument for them.But they have their own difficulties;the hammers that hit the string have to be coaxed not to sound like percussion, and each overlapping tone has to sound clear.This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student conductors: they have to learn to know every note of the music and how it should sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sound with fanatical but selfless authority.Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and understanding.Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in the language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in any century.Unit2:Schooling and Education It is commonly believed in United States that school is where people go to get an education.Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school.The distinction between schooling and education implied by this remark is important.Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling.Education knows no bounds.It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor.It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning.The agents of education can range from a revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished scientist.Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education quite often produces surprises.A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions.People are engaged in education from infancy on.Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term.It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integral part of one’s entire life.Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next.Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on.The slices of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the working of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught.For example, high school students know that there not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with.There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.2

Unit3:The Defini tion of Price Prices determine how resources are to be used.They are also the means by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed among buyers.The price system of the United States is a complex network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor, professional, transportation, and public-utility services.The interrelationships of all these prices make up the ―system‖ of prices.The price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad, complicated system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or less upon everything else.If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define ―price‖, many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words that price is the money values of a product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction.This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes.For a complete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much more than the amount of money involved must be known.Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, return privileges, and other factors.In other words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the factors that comprise the total ―package‖ being exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price.Unit4:Electricity The modern age is an age of electricity.People are so used to electric lights, radio, televisions, and telephones that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without them.When there is a power failure, people grope about in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the streets because there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent refrigerators.Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a little more than two centuries ago.Nature has apparently been experimenting in this field for million of years.Scientists are discovering more and more that the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity.All living cell send out tiny pulses of electricity.As the heart beats, it sends out pulses of record;they form an electrocardiogram, which a doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working.The brain, too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an electroencephalogram.The electric currents generated by most living cells are extremely small – often so small that sensitive instruments are needed to record them.But in some animals, certain muscle cells have become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as muscle cells at all.When large numbers of these cell are linked together, the effects can be astonishing.The electric eel is an amazing storage battery.It can seed a jolt of as much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it live.(An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.)As many as four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel’s body are specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it can deliver corresponds roughly to length of its body.4

Unit5:The Beginning of Drama There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece.The on most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual.The argument for this view goes as follows.In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world-even the seasonal changes-as unpredictable, and they sought through various means to control these unknown and feared powers.Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals.Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites.As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.Those who believe that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used, Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the “acting area” and the “auditorium.” In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task.Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun-as an actor might.Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling.According to this vies tales(about the hunt, war, or other feats)are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person.A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds.5

Unit6:Television Television-----the most pervasive and persuasive of modern technologies, marked by rapid change and growth-is moving into a new era, an era of extraordinary sophistication and versatility, which promises to reshape our lives and our world.It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made possible by the marriage of television and computer technologies.The word “television”, derived from its Greek(tele: distant)and Latin(visi sight)roots, can literally be interpreted as sight from a distance.Very simply put, it works in this way: through a sophisticated system of electronics, television provides the capability of converting an image(focused on a special photoconductive plate within a camera)into electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire or cable.These impulses, when fed into a receiver(television set), can then be electronically reconstituted into that same image.Television is more than just an electronic system, however.It is a means of expression, as well as a vehicle for communication, and as such becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings.The field of television can be divided into two categories determined by its means of transmission.First, there is broadcast television, which reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television signals.Second, there is nonbroadcast television, which provides for the needs of individuals or specific interest groups through controlled transmission techniques.Traditionally, television has been a medium of the masses.We are most familiar with broadcast television because it has been with us for about thirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today.During those years, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, who have been the major purveyors of news, information, and entertainment.These giants of broadcasting have actually shaped not only television but our perception of it as well.We have come to look upon the picture tube as a source of entertainment, placing our role in this dynamic medium as the passive viewer.6

Unit7:Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie, known as the King of Steel, built the steel industry in the United States, and , in the process, became one of the wealthiest men in America.His success resulted in part from his ability to sell the product and in part from his policy of expanding during periods of economic decline, when most of his competitors were reducing their investments.Carnegie believed that individuals should progress through hard work, but he also felt strongly that the wealthy should use their fortunes for the benefit of society.He opposed charity, preferring instead to provide educational opportunities that would allow others to help themselves.“He who dies rich, dies disgraced,” he often said.Among his more noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear his name, including the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which has a library, a museum of fine arts, and a museum of national history.He also founded a school of technology that is now part of Carnegie-Mellon University.Other philanthrophic gifts are the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to promote understanding between nations, the Carnegie Institute of Washington to fund scientific research, and Carnegie Hall to provide a center for the arts.Few Americans have been left untouched by Andrew Carnegie's generosity.His contributions of more than five million dollars established 2,500 libraries in small communities throughout the country and formed the nucleus of the public library system that we all enjoy today.7

Unit8:American Revolution The American Revolution was not a sudden and violent overturning of the political and social framework, such as later occurred in France and Russia, when both were already independent nations.Significant changes were ushered in, but they were not breathtaking.What happened was accelerated evolution rather than outright revolution.During the conflict itself people went on working and praying, marrying and playing.Most of them were not seriously disturbed by the actual fighting, and many of the more isolated communities scarcely knew that a war was on.America's War of Independence heralded the birth of three modern nations.One was Canada, which received its first large influx of English-speaking population from the thousands of loyalists who fled there from the United States.Another was Australia, which became a penal colony now that America was no longer available for prisoners and debtors.The third newcomer-the United States-based itself squarely on republican principles.Yet even the political overturn was not so revolutionary as one might suppose.In some states, notably Connecticut and Rhode Island, the war largely ratified a colonial self-rule already existing.British officials, everywhere ousted, were replaced by a home-grown governing class, which promptly sought a local substitute for king and Parliament.8

Unit9:Suburbanization If by “suburb” is meant an urban margin that grows more rapidly than its already developed interior, the process of suburbanization began during the emergence of the industrial city in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.Before that period the city was a small highly compact cluster in which people moved about on foot and goods were conveyed by horse and cart.But the early factories built in the 1840's were located along waterways and near railheads at the edges of cities, and housing was needed for the thousands of people drawn by the prospect of employment.In time, the factories were surrounded by proliferating mill towns of apartments and row houses that abutted the older, main cities.As a defense against this encroachment and to enlarge their tax bases, the cities appropriated their industrial neighbors.In 1854, for example, the city of Philadelphia annexed most of Philadelphia County.Similar municipal maneuvers took place in Chicago and in New York.Indeed, most great cities of the United States achieved such status only by incorporating the communities along their borders.With the acceleration of industrial growth came acute urban crowding and accompanying social stress-conditions that began to approach disastrous proportions when, in 1888, the first commercially successful electric traction line was developed.Within a few years the horse-drawn trolleys were retired and electric streetcar networks crisscrossed and connected every major urban area, fostering a wave of suburbanization that transformed the compact industrial city into a dispersed metropolis.This first phase of mass-scale suburbanization was reinforced by the simultaneous emergence of the urban Middle Class, whose desires for homeownership in neighborhoods far from the aging inner city were satisfied by the developers of single-family housing tracts.9

Unit10:Types of Speech Standard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used, and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any situation regardless of the level of formality.As such, these words and expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries.Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that are understood by almost all speakers of a language and used in informal speech or writing, but not considered appropriate for more formal situations.Almost all idiomatic expressions are colloquial language.Slang, however, refers to words and expressions understood by a large number of speakers but not accepted as good, formal usage by the majority.Colloquial expressions and even slang may be found in standard dictionaries but will be so identified.Both colloquial usage and slang are more common in speech than in writing.Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech.Some slang also passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary popularity followed by obscurity.In some cases, the majority never accepts certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their collective memories.Every generation seems to require its own set of words to describe familiar objects and events.It has been pointed out by a number of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary for the creation of a large body of slang expressions.First, the introduction and acceptance of new objects and situations in the society;second, a diverse population with a large number of subgroups;third, association among the subgroups and the majority population.Finally, it is worth noting that the terms “standard” “colloquial” and “slang” exist only as abstract labels for scholars who study language.Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language will be aware that they are using colloquial or slang expressions.Most speakers of English will, during appropriate situations, select and use all three types of expressions.10

Unit12:Museums From Boston to Los Angeles, from New York City to Chicago to Dallas, museums are either planning, building, or wrapping up wholesale expansion programs.These programs already have radically altered facades and floor plans or are expected to do so in the not-too-distant future.In New York City alone, six major institutions have spread up and out into the air space and neighborhoods around them or are preparing to do so.The reasons for this confluence of activity are complex, but one factor is a consideration everywhereor selling off-works of art has taken on new importance because of the museum's space problems.And increasingly, curators have been forced to juggle gallery space, rotating one masterpiece into public view while another is sent to storage.Despite the clear need for additional gallery and storage space, however,“ the museum has no plan, no plan to break out of its envelope in the next fifteen years,” according to Philadelphia Museum of Art's president.11

Unit14:A Rare Fossil Record The preservation of embryos and juveniles is a rate occurrence in the fossil record.The tiny, delicate skeletons are usually scattered by scavengers or destroyed by weathering before they can be fossilized.Ichthyosaurs had a higher chance of being preserved than did terrestrial creatures because, as marine animals, they tended to live in environments less subject to erosion.Still, their fossilization required a suite of factors: a slow rate of decay of soft tissues, little scavenging by other animals, a lack of swift currents and waves to jumble and carry away small bones, and fairly rapid burial.Given these factors, some areas have become a treasury of well-preserved ichthyosaur fossils.The deposits at Holzmaden, Germany, present an interesting case for analysis.The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marine shales deposited about 190 million years ago.Over the years, thousands of specimens of marine reptiles, fish and invertebrates have been recovered from these rocks.The quality of preservation is outstanding, but what is even more impressive is the number of ichthyosaur fossils containing preserved embryos.Ichthyosaurs with embryos have been reported from 6 different levels of the shale in a small area around Holzmaden, suggesting that a specific site was used by large numbers of ichthyosaurs repeatedly over time.The embryos are quite advanced in their physical development;their paddles, for example, are already well formed.One specimen is even preserved in the birth canal.In addition, the shale contains the remains of many newborns that are between 20 and 30 inches long.Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when they are so rare elsewhere The quality of preservation is almost unmatched and quarry operations have been carried out carefully with an awareness of the value of the fossils.But these factors do not account for the interesting question of how there came to be such a concentration of pregnant ichthyosaurs in a particular place very close to their time of giving birth.12

Unit15:The Nobel Academy For the last 82years, Sweden's Nobel Academy has decided who will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, thereby determining who will be elevated from the great and the near great to the immortal.But today the Academy is coming under heavy criticism both from the without and from within.Critics contend that the selection of the winners often has less to do with true writing ability than with the peculiar internal politics of the Academy and of Sweden itself.According to Ingmar Bjorksten , the cultural editor for one of the country's two major newspapers, the prize continues to represent “what people call a very Swedish exercise: reflecting Swedish tastes.”

The Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism in its selection by asserting that its physical distance from the great literary capitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from outside influences.This may well be true, but critics respond that this very distance may also be responsible for the Academy's inability to perceive accurately authentic trends in the literary world.Regardless of concerns over the selection process, however, it seems that the prize will continue to survive both as an indicator of the literature that we most highly praise, and as an elusive goal that writers seek.If for no other reason, the prize will continue to be desirable for the financial rewards that accompany it;not only is the cash prize itself considerable, but it also dramatically increases sales of an author's books.13 Unit16:The War between Britain and France In the late eighteenth century, battles raged in almost every corner of Europe, as well as in the Middle East, south Africa ,the West Indies, and Latin America.In reality, however, there was only one major war during this time, the war between Britain and France.All other battles were ancillary to this larger conflict, and were often at least partially related to its antagonist’ goals and strategies.France sought total domination of Europe.this goal was obstructed by British independence and Britain’s efforts throughout the continent to thwart Napoleon;through treaties.Britain built coalitions(not dissimilar in concept to today’s NATO)guaranteeing British participation in all major European conflicts.These two antagonists were poorly matched, insofar as they had very unequal strengths;France was predominant on land, Britain at sea.The French knew that, short of defeating the British navy, their only hope of victory was to close all the ports of Europe to British ships.Accordingly, France set out to overcome Britain by extending its military domination from Moscow t Lisbon, from Jutland to Calabria.All of this entailed tremendous risk, because France did not have the military resources to control this much territory and still protect itself and maintain order at home.French strategists calculated that a navy of 150 ships would provide the force necessary to defeat the British navy.Such a force would give France a three-to-two advantage over Britain.This advantage was deemed necessary because of Britain’s superior sea skills and technology because of Britain’s superior sea skills and technology, and also because Britain would be fighting a defensive war, allowing it to win with fewer forces.Napoleon never lost substantial impediment to his control of Europe.As his force neared that goal, Napoleon grew increasingly impatient and began planning an immediate attack.14

Unit17:Evolution of Sleep Sleep is very ancient.In the electroencephalographic sense we share it with all the primates and almost all the other mammals and birds: it may extend back as far as the reptiles.There is some evidence that the two types of sleep, dreaming and dreamless, depend on the life-style of the animal, and that predators are statistically much more likely to dream than prey, which are in turn much more likely to experience dreamless sleep.In dream sleep, the animal is powerfully immobilized and remarkably unresponsive to external stimuli.Dreamless sleep is much shallower, and we have all witnessed cats or dogs cocking their ears to a sound when apparently fast asleep.The fact that deep dream sleep is rare among pray today seems clearly to be a product of natural selection, and it makes sense that today, when sleep is highly evolved, the stupid animals are less frequently immobilized by deep sleep than the smart ones.But why should they sleep deeply at all Why should a state of such deep immobilization ever have evolved Perhaps one useful hint about the original function of sleep is to be found in the fact that dolphins and whales and aquatic mammals in genera seem to sleep very little.There is, by and large, no place to hide in the ocean.Could it be that, rather than increasing an animal’s vulnerability, the University of Florida and Ray Meddis of London University have suggested this to be the case.It is conceivable that animals who are too stupid to be quite on their own initiative are, during periods of high risk, immobilized by the implacable arm of sleep.The point seems particularly clear for the young of predatory animals.This is an interesting notion and probably at least partly true.15

Unit18:Modern American Universities Before the 1850’s, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days.They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university.In German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals.Between mid-century and the end of the 1800’s, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study.Some of them return to become presidents of venerable colleges-----Harvard, Yale, Columbia---and transform them into modern universities.The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty.Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students.The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars.Drilling and learning by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor’s own research was presented in class.Graduate training leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced.With the establishment of the seminar system, graduate student learned to question, analyze, and conduct their own research.At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music.The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own course of study.The notion of major fields of study emerged.The new goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world.Paying close heed to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new regime.Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.18现代美国大学

19世纪50年代以前美国有一些小的学院，大多数成立于殖民时期。它们是与教会挂钩的小机构，主要目的是培养学生的道德品行。当时在欧洲各地，高等教育机构已经发展起来，用的是一个古老的名称--大学。

德国已经发展出一种不同类型的大学。德国大学关心的主要是创造知识和传播知识，而不是道德教育。从世纪中叶到世纪末，有9000多名美国青年因不满国内所受的教育而赴德深造。他们中的一些人回国后成为一些知名学府--哈佛、耶鲁、哥伦比亚的校长并且把这些学府转变成了现代意义的大学。

新校长们断绝了和教会的关系，聘请了新型的教职员，聘用教授根据的是他们在学科方面的知识，而不是正确的信仰和约束学生的强硬手段。

新的原则是大学既要传播知识也要创造知识。这就需要由学者型老师组成教工队伍。靠死记硬背和做练习来学习的方法变为德国式的讲解方法。德 国式的讲解就是由教授讲授自己的研究课题。通过研究生性质的学习可以获得表明最高学术造诣的古老的德国学位--博士学位。

随着讨论课制度的建立，研究生们学会了提问、分析以及开展他们自己的研究。同时，新式大学学校规模和课程设臵完全突破了过去那种只

有数学、经典著作、美学和音乐的狭窄课程表。哈佛大学的校长率先推出选课制度，这样学生们就能选择自己的专业。主修领域的概念也出现了。新的目标是使大学对实际社会更有用。

密切关注着社会上的实际需求，新的大学着意培养学生解决问题的能力。工程系学生成为新式教育体制下最典型的学生。学生们还被培训成为经济学家、建筑师、农学家、社会工作人员以及教师。

Unit19:Children s Numerical Skills people appear to born to compute.The numerical skills of children develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity guiding their growth.Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impress accuracy---one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs.Soon they are capable of nothing that they have placed five knives, spoons and forks on the table and, a bit later, that this amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware.Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction.It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a desert island at birth and retrieved seven years later, he or she could enter a second enter a second-grade mathematics class without any serious problems of intellectual adjustment.Of course, the truth is not so simple.This century, the work of cognitive psychologists has illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on which intellectual progress depends.Children were observed as they slowly grasped-----or, as the case might be, bumped into-----concepts that adults take for quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short glass into a tall thin one.Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, asked to count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or red pencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total.Such studies have suggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and with effort.They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract numbers------the idea of a oneness，a twoness, a threeness that applies to any class of objects and is a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically demanding than setting a table-----is itself far from innate 18

19儿童的数学能力

人似乎生来就会计算。孩子们使用数字的技能发展得如此之早和如此必然，很容易让人想象有一个内在的精确而成熟的数字钟在指导他们的成长。

孩子们在学会走路和说话后不久，就能以令人惊叹的准确布臵桌子--五把椅子前面分别摆上一把刀、一个汤匙、一把叉子。很快地，他们就能知道他们已在桌面上摆放了五把刀、五个汤匙、五把叉子。没有多久，他们就又能知道这些东西加起来总共是15把银餐具。

如此这般地掌握了加法之后，他们又转向减法。有一种设想几乎顺理成章，那就是，即使一个孩子一出生就被隔绝到荒岛

上，七年后返回世间，也能直接上小学二年级的数学课，而不会碰到任何智力调整方面的大麻烦。当然，事实并没有这么简单。

本世纪认知心理学家的工作已经揭示了智力发展所依赖的日常学习的微妙形式。他们观察到孩子们缓慢掌握那些成年人认为理所当然的概念的

过程，或者是孩子们偶然遇到这些概念的过程。他们也观察到孩子们拒绝承认某些常识的情况。比如：

孩子们拒绝承认当水从短而粗的瓶中倒入细而长的瓶子中时，水的数量没有变化。心理学家们而后又展示一个例子，即：让孩子们数一堆铅笔时，他们能顺利地报出蓝铅笔或红铅笔的数目，但却需诱导才能报出总的数目。此类研究表明：数学基础是经过逐渐努力后掌握的。

他们还表示抽象的数字概念，如可表示任何一类物品并且是在做比摆桌子有更高数学要求的任何事时都必备的一、二、三意识，远远不是天生就具备的。

Unit20:The History Significance of American Revolution The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human actions so complex that it is always hazardous to attempt to represent events covering a number of years, a multiplicity of persons, and distant localities as the expression of one intellectual or social movement;yet the historical process which culminated in the ascent of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency can be regarded as the outstanding example not only of the birth of a new way of life but of nationalism as a new way of life.The American Revolution represents the link between the seventeenth century, in which modern England became conscious of itself, and the awakening of modern Europe at the end of the eighteenth century.It may seem strange that the march of history should have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but only in the North American colonies could a struggle for civic liberty lead also to the foundation of a new nation.Here, in the popular rising against a ―tyrannical‖ government, the fruits were more than the securing of a freer constitution.They included the growth of a nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots of common descent, a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or dynasty.With the American nation, for the first time, a nation was born, not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world.20

20美国革命的历史意义

历史的进程是如此错综复杂，人类行为的动机是如此令人费解，以至于想把那些时间跨度大，涉及人数多，空间范围广的事件描述成为一个智者或一场社会运动的表现的企图是危险的。

然而以托马斯•杰弗逊登上总统宝座为高潮的那一段历史过程可以被视为一个特殊的例子。

在这段历史时期里不仅诞生了新的生活方式，而且民族主义成为了一种新的生活方式。美国独立战争成为联结17世纪现代英格兰的自我意识和18世纪末现代欧洲的觉醒的纽带。历史的行程需要跨越大西洋，这看起来似乎有些奇怪，但却只有在北美殖民地为民权和自由的斗争才能导致新国家的建立。

这里，反对“暴政”的民众起义的成果不仅是获得一个包含更多自由的宪法，还包括了一个依照人民的意愿诞生在自由中的国家的成长。这个国家不是基于血缘、地理、君主或王朝的野心。由于有了美国，第一次一个国家的诞生不是发生在历史模糊的过去，而是在全世界人们的眼前。

Unit21:The Origin of Sports When did sport begin If sport is, in essence, play, the claim might be made that sport is much older than humankind, for , as we all have observed, the beasts play.Dogs and cats wrestle and play ball games.Fishes and birds dance.The apes have simple, pleasurable games.Frolicking infants, school children playing tag, and adult arm wrestlers are demonstrating strong, transgenerational and transspecies bonds with the universe of animals – past, present, and future.Young animals, particularly, tumble, chase, run wrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh(or so it seems)to the point of delighted exhaustion.Their play, and ours, appears to serve no other purpose than to give pleasure to the players, and apparently, to remove us temporarily from the anguish of life in earnest.Some philosophers have claimed that our playfulness is the most noble part of our basic nature.In their generous conceptions, play harmlessly and experimentally permits us to put our creative forces, fantasy, and imagination into action.Play is release from the tedious battles against scarcity and decline which are the incessant, and inevitable, tragedies of life.This is a grand conception that excites and provokes.The holders of this view claim that the origins of our highest accomplishments----liturgy, literature, and law----can be traced to a play impulse which, paradoxically, we see most purely enjoyed by young beasts and children.Our sports, in this rather happy, nonfatalistic view of human nature, are more splendid creations of the nondatable, transspecies play impulse.22

21体育的起源

体育运动开始于何时如果体育运动的本质就是游戏的话，我们就可以宣称体育运动比人类古老，因为正如我们所观察到的，野兽也进行嬉戏。狗和猫会扭抱玩球，鱼和鸟翩翩起舞，猿类会进行一些简单的、愉快的游戏。雀跃的幼儿，捉迷藏的学童和成年摔跤者展示出人与动物界的有力的跨越世代与物种的永恒的联系--特别是幼兽，它们翻筋斗、追逐、奔跑、扭打、模仿、嬉笑(或者看起来是)，直到愉快地精疲力尽。他们的玩耍，同我们的一样，似乎并没有别的目的而只是给游戏者以愉悦，暂时把我们从严肃生活的痛苦中拉出来。一些哲学家称我们的嬉戏是我们本质中最崇高的部分。

依他们这些随意性很大的见解，游戏无害而且实验性地允许我们的创造力、幻想和想象发挥作用。游戏让人们从永不间断亦不可避免的生活悲剧-与乏匮和衰退进行的枯燥抗争中得到一种解脱。这是一个令人兴奋、给人启发的伟大见解。这种见解的持有者宣称，我们的最高成就如宗教典礼、文学、法律的起源可以追溯到游戏的冲动。但令人不解的是我们看到只有幼兽和小孩子才最纯粹地享受着这种冲动。从这种比较豁达和非宿命的人性观来看，我们的运动是超时代、跨物种的辉煌的创造。

Unit22:Collectibles Collectibles have been a part of almost every culture since ancient times.Whereas some objects have been collected for their usefulness, others have been selected for their aesthetic beauty alone.In the United States, the kinds of collectibles currently popular range from traditional objects such as stamps, coins, rare books, and art to more recent items of interest like dolls, bottles, baseball cards, and comic books.Interest in collectibles has increased enormously during the past decade, in part because some collectibles have demonstrated their value as investments.Especially during cycles of high inflation, investors try to purchase tangibles that will at least retain their current market values.In general, the most traditional collectibles will be sought because they have preserved their value over the years, there is an organized auction market for them, and they are most easily sold in the event that cash is needed.Some examples of the most stable collectibles are old masters, Chinese ceramics, stamps, coins, rare books, antique jewelry, silver, porcelain, art by well-known artists, autographs, and period furniture.Other items of more recent interest include old photograph records, old magazines, post cards, baseball cards, art glass, dolls, classic cars, old bottles, and comic books.These relatively new kinds of collectibles may actually appreciate faster as short-term investments, but may not hold their value as long-term investments.Once a collectible has had its initial play, it appreciates at a fairly steady rate, supported by an increasing number of enthusiastic collectors competing for the limited supply of collectibles that become increasingly more difficult to locate.24

Unit23:Ford Although Henry Ford’s name is closely associated with the concept of mass production, he should receive equal credit for introducing labor practices as early as 1913 that would be considered advanced even by today’s standards.Safety measures were improved, and the work day was reduced to eight hours, compared with the ten-or twelve-hour day common at the time.In order to accommodate the shorter work day, the entire factory was converted from two to three shifts.In addition, sick leaves as well as improved medical care for those injured on the job were instituted.The Ford Motor Company was one of the first factories to develop a technical school to train specialized skilled laborers and an English language school for immigrants.Some efforts were even made to hire the handicapped and provide jobs for former convicts.The most widely acclaimed innovation was the five-dollar-a-day minimum wage that was offered in order to recruit and retain the best mechanics and to discourage the growth of labor unions.Ford explained the new wage policy in terms of efficiency and profit sharing.He also mentioned the fact that his employees would be able to purchase the automobiles that they produced – in effect creating a market for the product.In order to qualify for the minimum wage, an employee had to establish a decent home and demonstrate good personal habits, including sobriety, thriftiness, industriousness, and dependability.Although some criticism was directed at Ford for involving himself too much in the personal lives of his employees, there can be no doubt that, at a time when immigrants were being taken advantage of in frightful ways, Henry Ford was helping many people to establish themselves in America.25

23亨利•福特

尽管亨利•福特的名字和大生产的概念相连，但他在劳工保护上得到同样的赞誉，因为他早在1913年便实行了用今天的标准来衡量依然是先进的标准。安全措施得到改进，日工作时间从当时普遍的10或12小时减少到8小时。为了适应更短的日工作时间，整个工厂从双班变成了三班。而且，病假和改善了的工伤医疗得以制度化。福特汽车公司是最早建立技术学校来培训专门技工和为移民开设英语学校的工厂之一。公司甚至为雇佣残疾人和有前科的人而作出了一些努力。最受广泛称赞的革新是实行五美元一天的最低工资。其目的是招收和留住那些最好的技工并阻碍工会的发展。

福特从效率和利润分享的角度来解释这项新的工资政策。他也提到这样一个事实，他的员工可以买他们生产的汽车--这实际上是为其产品另开辟了一个市场。为了够资格得到最低工资，员工必须建立一个得体的家庭并显示出良好的个人习惯，包括节制、俭省、勤勉和可靠。虽然有人批评福特过多地干涉 了员工的私人生活，但毫无疑问，在移民们被用恶劣的方式剥削的时代，亨利•福特却帮助了许多人在美国扎下根来。

Unit25:Movie Music Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as ―silent‖, the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent.From the very beginning, music was regarded as an indispensable accompaniment;when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public film exhibition in the United States in February 1896, they were accompanied by piano improvisations on popular tunes.At first, the music played bore no special relationship to the films;an accompaniment of any kind was sufficient.Within a very short time, however, the incongruity of playing lively music to a solemn film became apparent, and film pianists began to take some care in matching their pieces to the mood of the film.As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a cellist, would be added to the pianist in certain cases, and in the larger movie theaters small orchestras were formed.For a number of years the selection of music for each film program rested entirely in the hands of the conductor or leader of the orchestra, and very often the principal qualification for holding such a position was not skill or taste so much as the ownership of a large personal library of musical pieces.Since the conductor seldom saw the films until the night before they were to be shown(if indeed, the conductor was lucky enough to see them then), the musical arrangement was normally improvised in the greatest hurry.To help meet this difficulty, film distributing companies started the practice of publishing suggestions for musical accompaniments.In 1909, for example, the Edison Company began issuing with their films such indications of mood as ― pleasant‖, ―sad‖, ―lively‖.The suggestions became more explicit, and so emerged the musical cue sheet containing indications of mood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise directions to show where one piece led into the next.Certain films had music especially composed for them.The most famous of these early special scores was that composed and arranged for D.W Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915.27 电影插曲

尽管我们习惯于将1927年以前的电影称为“无声电影”，但是就无声这个词完整的意义上来说，电影从未真正的无声过，从最初开始音乐就被视为必不可少的伴奏。当卢米埃尔的电影在1896年2月美国首届影片公映展览上放映的时候，影片便用当时的流行曲临场钢琴伴奏。最初，这些音乐伴奏与电影没有什么特别的关系，用什么曲子伴奏都行。但在很短的时间内，为一部庄重的影片演奏快活的音乐所产生的不协调感变得显而易见，因此钢琴家们开始注意将自己的作品与影片的情调结合起来。

随着影剧院在数量上与重要性上的不断增长，在一些场合，除了钢琴师外，还要加上小提琴师，或许还有一位大提琴师。较大的影剧院里还组成了小型的管弦乐队。在很长的时间内，为各部影片选择配乐完全掌握在乐队指挥或队长手中，而通常把持这种职位的资格不是技巧或鉴赏品味，而是拥有一个大的音乐作品的个人收藏。因为直到电影上映的前一天晚上乐队指挥才能看到影片(如果这个指挥真正有幸能够看到影片的话)，音乐安排通常是在非常匆忙的情况下临场进行的。为了解决以上的困难，电影发行公司开办了为音乐伴奏印制提示单的业务。例如1909年爱迪生公司开始将一些诸如“喜悦的”、“悲伤的”、“活泼的”之类表明影片情调特征的提示与影片一起发行。

这些提示逐渐变得更加具体，并且出现了包括影片情调说明、适用乐曲名称和乐曲转换点等内容的配乐说明单。某些影片拥有专门为其创作的音乐。这些早期特创乐谱中最著名的便是为D.W.格雷夫斯1915年上映的影片《一个国家的诞生》所创作的音乐。

Note: 美国通俗音乐分类： 1.Jazz;1)traditional jazz----a)blues, 代表人物：Billy Holiday b)ragtime(切分乐曲): 代表人物：Scott Joplin c)New Orleans jazz(= Dixieland jazz)eg: Louis Armstron d)swing eg: Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, etc.e)bop(=bebop, rebop)eg: Lester Young, Charlie Parker etc.28 2)modern jazz------a)cool jazz(=progressive jazz)高雅爵士乐。Eg: Kenny G.b)third-stream jazz.Eg: Charles Mingus, John Lewis.c)main stream jazz.d)avant-garde jazz.e)soul jazz.Eg: Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald

f)Latin jazz.2.gospel music 福音音乐，主要源于Nero spirituals.Eg.Dolly Parker, Mahalia Jackson 3.Country and Western music.Eg.John Denver, Tammy Wynette, Kenny Rogers, etc.4.Rock music-----------a)rock and roll eg: Elvis Prestley(US), the Beatles(UK.)

b)folk rock Eg: Bob Dylon, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, Lionel Riche etc.c)punk rock

d)acid rock

e)rock jazz eg: M.J.McLaughlin

f)Jurassic rock 5.Music for easy listening(i.e.light music)29 Unit26:International Business and Cross-cultural Communication The increase in international business and in foreign investment has created a need for executives with knowledge of foreign languages and skills in cross-cultural communication.Americans, however, have not been well trained in either area and, consequently, have not enjoyed the same level of success in negotiation in an international arena as have their foreign counterparts.Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching an agreement.It involves persuasion and compromise, but in order to participate in either one, the negotiators must understand the ways in which people are persuaded and how compromise is reached within the culture of the negotiation.In many international business negotiations abroad, Americans are perceived as wealthy and impersonal.It often appears to the foreign negotiator that the American represents a large multi-million-dollar corporation that can afford to pay the price without bargaining further.The American negotiator’s role becomes that of an impersonal purveyor of information and cash.In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have been identified that may serve to confirm this stereotypical perception, while undermining the negotiator’s position.Two traits in particular that cause cross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part of the American negotiator.Furthermore, American negotiators often insist on realizing short-term goals.Foreign negotiators, on the other hand, may value the relationship established between negotiators and may be willing to invest time in it for long-term benefits.In order to solidify the relationship, they may opt for indirect interactions without regard for the time involved in getting to know the other negotiator.30

国际商业和跨文化交流

国际贸易和海外投资的增加产生了对具有外语知识和跨文化交流技巧的经理的需求。然而，美国人在这两方面未得到良好的训练，因此没有在国际谈判中象他们的外国对手一样成功。谈判是为了达成协议而反复交流的过程。它包括说服和妥协。

但是为了去进行说服和妥协，谈判者必须懂得在谈判的文化中怎样说服人和怎样达成妥协。在国外的国际商务谈判中，美国人被视为富有和不带个人情感。在外国谈判者看来，似乎美国人代表着一个庞大的拥有数百万资财的大企业，不用进一步地讨价还价就能出得起价钱。

美国谈判者的角色变成了一个没有个人感情的信息及现金的供应者。对在国外的美国谈判者的研究中，我们找出了损害谈判者能力的几个特点，或许证实这个已成定式的看法。尤其引起跨文化误解的两个特点是美国谈判者的直截了当和缺乏耐心。此外，美国谈判者经常坚持实现短期目标，而外国的谈判者会珍视建立谈判者之间的联系并愿意为长期利益投入时间。

为了巩固这种联系，他们会选择非直接的交流而不计较投入用于了解对方的时间。明显地，价值观的不同和理解上的差异影响了谈判的结果和谈判者的成功与否。美国人要在国际商务谈判中扮演更为有效的角色，他们就必须投入更多的努力提高跨文化的理解力。

Unit27:Scientific Theories In science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that are related.A theory often involves an imaginary model that helps scientists picture the way an observed event could be produced.A good example of this is found in the kinetic molecular theory, in which gases are pictured as being made up of many small particles that are in constant motion.A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observations, helps to predict events that have not as yet been observed.After a theory has been publicized, scientists design experiments to test the theory.If observations confirm the scientist’s predictions, the theory is supported.If observations do not confirm the predictions, the scientists must search further.There may be a fault in the experiment, or the theory may have to be revised or rejected.Science involves imagination and creative thinking as well as collecting information and performing experiments.Facts by themselves are not science.As the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said, ―Science is built with facts just as a house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts cannot be called science any more than a pile of bricks can be called a house.‖

Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists have learned about a particular problem.After known facts have been gathered, the scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requires considerable imagination.Possible solutions to the problem are formulated.These possible solutions are called hypotheses.In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown.It extends the scientist’s thinking beyond the known facts.The scientist plans experiments, performs calculations, and makes observations to test hypotheses.Without hypothesis, further investigation lacks purpose and direction.When hypotheses are confirmed, they are incorporated into theories.32

科学理论

在科学中，理论是对所观察到的相关事件的合理解释。理论通常包含一个虚构的模型，这个模型帮助科学家构想所观察到的事件是如何发生的。分子运动理论便是我们能找到的一个很好的例子。在这个理论中，气体被描绘成由许多不断运动的小颗粒组成。一个有用的理论，除了能够解释过去的观测，还有助于预测那些未被观测到的事件。一个理论公开后，科学家们设计实验来检验这个理论。如果观察证实了科学家的预言，这个理论则得到了验证。如果观察不能证实科学家的预言，科学家就必须进一步的研究。或许是实验存在错误，或许是这个理论必须被修改或抛弃。

科学家除了收集信息和操作实验外还需要想象能力和创/造性思维。事实本身并不是科学。正如数学家乔斯亨利波恩克尔所说：“科学建立在事实之上，就像房子用砖砌成一样。但事实的收集不能被称作科学，就像一堆砖不能被叫作房子一样。

”多数科学家通过找出别的科学家在一个特定问题上的所知来开始研究。在收集了已知事实之后，科学家开始了研究中需要相当想像力的部分。他们尔后拟订对这个问题的可行的解决方法。这些可行的解决方式被称为假设。

在某种意义上，任何假设都是向未知的跳跃。它使科学家的思维超越已知事实。科学家计划实验、计算、观测以检验假定。若没有假设，进一步的研究便缺乏目的和方向。当假设被证实了，就成为理论的一部分。

Unit28:Changing Roles of Public Education One of the most important social developments that helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the role of public education was the effect of the baby boom of the 1950's and 1960's on the schools.In the 1920's, but especially in the Depression conditions of the 1930's, the United States experienced a declining birth rate---every thousand women aged fifteen to forty-four gave birth to about 118 live children in 1920, 89.2 in 1930, 75.8 in 1936, and 80 in 1940.With the growing prosperity brought on by the Second World War and the economic boom that followed it young people married and established households earlier and began to raise larger families than had their predecessors during the Depression.Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946,106.2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955.Although economics was probably the most important determinant, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom.The increased value placed on the idea of the family also helps to explain this rise in birth rates.The baby boomers began streaming into the first grade by the mid 1940's and became a flood by 1950.The public school system suddenly found itself overtaxed.While the number of schoolchildren rose because of wartime and postwar conditions, these same conditions made the schools even less prepared to cope with the food.The wartime economy meant that few new schools were built between 1940 and 1945.Moreover, during the war and in the boom times that followed, large numbers of teachers left their profession for better-paying jobs elsewhere in the economy.Therefore in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system.Consequently, the ― custodial rhetoric‖ of the 1930’s and early 1940’s no longer made sense that is, keeping youths aged sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could no longer be a high priority for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach younger children aged five to sixteen.With the baby boom, the focus of educators and of laymen interested in education inevitably turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic skills and discipline.The system no longer had much interest in offering nontraditional, new, and extra services to older youths.34 公共教育的角色变化一项重要的、有可能促使人们对公共教育的角色的看法发生转变的社会发展是本世纪五六十年代的生育高峰对学校的影响。在20年代，尤其是在30年代后的大萧条中，美国经历了一次出生率的下降--1920年每千名年龄在15岁至45岁的妇女生下大约118个存活婴儿，1930年89.2个，1936年75.8个，1940年80个。随着二战带来的持续繁荣以及随之而来的经济增长，年轻人比大萧条中的同龄人更早地结婚成家，而且比前辈养育更大的家庭。1946年出生率上升到102%，1950年达106%，1955年达118%。对于生育高峰，经济有可能是最重要的决定因素，但它并不是唯一的解释。不断受到重视的家庭观念也有助于解释出生率的上升。到40年代中期为止，这些生育高峰出生的孩子们开始源源不断地进入小学一年级。到了1950年，就形成了一股洪流。公共教育系统突然感到不堪重负了。由于战时和战后的状况，使得学龄儿童人数增加，这些状况使得学校面对这股洪流更加措手不及。战时经济意味着在1940年到1950年间几乎没有建立新学校。而且，在战时和随后的经济增长时期，大量的教师离开岗位去别处从事报酬更为优厚的工作。

因此，在五六十年代，生育高峰冲击着陈旧而不完备的学校体系。这样一来，30年代以及40年代早期，“监护理论”就不再有意义了。也就是说，通过使16岁以上的年轻人留在学校不进入劳动力市场的做法再也不是教育机构的优先考虑了。因为教育机构不再能找到场地和教师来教育那些更小的5-16岁的孩子。随着生育高峰，教育者和圈外人士对教育的兴趣和焦点，不可避免地转向了更低的年级和基础的学术技能和学科上。这个系统不再有浓厚的兴趣给较年长的年轻人提供非传统的新式的和额外的服务。

Unit29:Telecommuting Telecommuting--substituting the computer for the trip to the job----has been hailed as a solution to all kinds of problems related to office work.For workers it promises freedom from the office, less time wasted in traffic, and help with child-care conflicts.For management, telecommuting helps keep high performers on board, minimizes tardiness and absenteeism by eliminating commutes, allows periods of solitude for high-concentration tasks, and provides scheduling flexibility.In some areas, such as Southern California and Seattle, Washington, local governments are encouraging companies to start telecommuting programs in order to reduce rush-hour congestion and improve air quality.But these benefits do not come easily.Making a telecommuting program work requires careful planning and an understanding of the differences between telecommuting realities and popular images.Many workers are seduced by rosy illusions of life as a telecommuter.A computer programmer from New York City moves to the tranquil Adirondack Mountains and stays in contact with her office via computer.A manager comes in to his office three days a week and works at home the other two.An accountant stays home to care for her sick child;she hooks up her telephone modern connections and does office work between calls to the doctor.These are powerful images, but they are a limited reflection of reality.Telecommuting workers soon learn that it is almost impossible to concentrate on work and care for a young child at the same time.Before a certain age, young children cannot recognize, much less respect, the necessary boundaries between work and family.Additional child support is necessary if the parent is to get any work done.Management too must separate the myth from the reality.Although the media has paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting in most cases it is the employee’s situation, not the availability of technology that precipitates a telecommuting arrangement.That is partly why, despite the widespread press coverage, the number of companies with work-at-home programs or policy guidelines remains small.36

电子交通

电子交通--用电脑取代上班的往返--作为对各种各样的办公室工作问题的解决办法已受到了欢迎。

对工作者来说，它承诺不受办公室的约束，更少的时间浪费在交通上和有助于解决照看小孩的矛盾。对管理者来说，电子交通有助于挽留高效率的工作者，通过省去办公室与家之间的来回往返，大大减少工作拖拉和旷工，给予管理者独处的时间来完成需要高度集中精神的任务，为管理者提供灵活的时间安排。在一些地区，如南加利福尼亚和西雅图、华盛顿，地方政府鼓励公司开始电子交通计划以减少交通高峰时的塞车和提高空气质量。

但这些益处也来之不易。要使电子交通成功需要仔细的计划并且理解电子交通的现实状况和流行的想象之间的区别。许多工作者被电子交通的美好幻想所迷惑。一位电脑程序设计员从纽约市搬到了宁静的阿第伦达克山，用电脑保持与她办公室之间的联系。一位经理一周三天到办公室，其他两天在家工作；一位会计师在家照顾她生病的孩子，接通电话调制解调器的接头，在同医生通话之余完成办公室工作。

这些是很有震撼力的情景，但也是对现实有限的反映。电子交通者很快发现在同一时间专注工作和照看小孩几乎是不可能的。在某个年龄之前，小孩子不可能意识到，更不可能尊重工作与家庭之间的界限。如果家长要完成工作，就必须另外照看小孩。

管理阶层必须把现实同神话分开。虽然传媒对电子交通投入了极大的关注，但在很大程度上，是员工的实际情况而不是技术的可能性促成电子交通的安排。这就是为什么尽管有广泛的报导，具有在家工作项目或行动纲领的公司数目依然很少的部分原因。

Unit30:The origin of Refrigerators By the mid-nineteenth century, the term ―icebox‖ had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States.The ice trade grew with the growth of cities.Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter.After the Civil War(1861-1865),as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use.Even before 1880,half of the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use.This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had been invented.Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose.In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary.The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling.Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job.Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.But as early as 1803, and ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track.He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center.When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks.One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.38

冰箱的由来

直到19世纪中期，“冰箱”这个名词才进入了美国语言，但冰仅仅只是开始影响美国普通市民的饮食。冰的买卖随着城市的发展而发展。冰被用在旅馆、酒馆、医院以及被一些有眼光的城市商人用于肉、鱼和黄油的保鲜。内战(1861-1865)之后，冰被用于冷藏货车，同时也进入了民用。甚至在1880年前，半数在纽约、费城和巴尔的摩销售的冰，三分之一在波士顿和芝加哥销售的冰进入家庭使用，因为一种新的家庭设备，冰箱，即现代冰箱的前身，被发明了。

制造一台有效率的冰箱不像我们想象的那么简单。19世纪早期，关于对冷藏科学至关重要的热物理知识是很浅陋的。认为最好的冰箱应该防止冰的融化这样一个普遍的观点显然是错误的，因为正是冰的融化起了制冷作用。早期为节省冰的努力，包括用毯子把冰包起来，使得冰不能发挥它的作用。直到近19世纪末，发明家们才成功地找到有效率的冰箱所需要的精确的隔热和循环的精确平衡。

但早在1803年，一位有发明天才的马里兰农场主，托马斯莫尔，找到了正确方法。他拥有一个农场，离华盛顿约20英里，那里的乔治镇村庄是集市中心。当他用自己设计的冰箱运送黄油去市场时，他发现顾客们会走过装在竞争者桶里那些迅速融化的黄油而给他比市价更高的价格买他仍然新鲜坚硬，整齐地切成一磅一块的黄油。莫尔说他的冰箱的一个好处是使得农民们不必在夜里上路去市场以保持他们产品的低温。

Unit31:British Columbia British Columbia is the third largest Canadian provinces, both in area and population.It is nearly 1.5 times as large as Texas, and extends 800 miles(1,280km)north from the United States border.It includes Canada’s entire west coast and the islands just off the coast.Most of British Columbia is mountainous, with long rugged ranges running north and south.Even the coastal islands are the remains of a mountain range that existed thousands of years ago.During the last Ice Age, this range was scoured by glaciers until most of it was beneath the sea.Its peaks now show as islands scattered along the coast.The southwestern coastal region has a humid mild marine climate.Sea winds that blow inland from the west are warmed by a current of warm water that flows through the Pacific Ocean.As a result, winter temperatures average above freezing and summers are mild.These warm western winds also carry moisture from the ocean.Inland from the coast, the winds from the Pacific meet the mountain barriers of the coastal ranges and the Rocky Mountains.As they rise to cross the mountains, the winds are cooled, and their moisture begins to fall as rain.On some of the western slopes almost 200 inches(500cm)of rain fall each year.More than half of British Columbia is heavily forested.On mountain slopes that receive plentiful rainfall, huge Douglas firs rise in towering columns.These forest giants often grow to be as much as 300 feet(90m)tall, with diameters up to 10 feet(3m).More lumber is produced from these trees than from any other kind of tree in North America.Hemlock, red cedar, and balsam fir are among the other trees found in British Columbia.40

英属哥伦比亚

英属哥伦比亚是加拿大的第三大省，无论是面积还是人口都是如此。它几乎是德克萨斯的1.5倍，从美国边境一直向北延伸了800英里(1，280公里)。它包括了加拿大整个西海岸及附近岛屿。

大部分英属哥伦比亚多山峦。绵长而粗犷的山脉贯通南北。甚至那些沿海的岛屿都是那些存在于千万年前的山脉的遗迹。在上一个冰河时期，这些山脉被冰河冲刷侵蚀，直到大部分山脉被淹没在海中。它们的峰顶显现为沿着海岸散布的岛屿。

西南海岸地区有着潮湿温和的海洋性气候。从太平洋来的温暖的洋流使得从西吹过内陆的海风变得温暖。因此这儿冬天平均气温在零上而且夏天也不会酷热。这些温暖的西风同样也从海洋带来了湿气。来自太平洋的、从海岸向内陆的风遇到海岸山脉和落基山脉这些山脉屏障。当气流升高跨越这些山脉时，风的温度就降低了，风中的水分形成降雨。在一些朝西山坡区域每年大约有200英寸(500厘米)的降水。

大部分英属哥伦比亚密布着森林。在有充足降水的斜坡，巨大的道格拉斯枞树高耸入云。这些森林巨人常常长到高达300英尺(90米)，直径粗达10英尺(3米)。这些树产出了比北美其他任何树都多的木材。铁杉、红香椿、香脂冷杉枞都是发现于英属哥伦比亚的其它树种。

Unit32:Botany Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge.For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest of insights.It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but form what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient.This is logical.Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things even for other plants.They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes.Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each.To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of ― knowledge‖ at all.Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows.Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid.When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken.Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture: cultivated crops.From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild-and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.42

植物学

植物学，即对植物的研究，在人类知识的历史中占据了特殊的地位。这是人类几千年来超越模糊的认知而真正有所了解的领域之一。我们今天不可能知道新石器时代的祖先们对植物到底了解多少，但我们在至今仍存在的前工业化社会观察到：人类对植物及其特性的详细了解应该是非常古老的。这是理所当然的。植物是其他生物甚至其他植物食物金字塔的基础。它们对人们的生活至关重要，不仅在食物上，而且在衣物、武器、工具、染料、药物、住所和许许多多其他的用途上。至今仍生活在亚马逊河丛林中的部落确实能够辨识几百种植物并知道每一种的许多特性。对他们来说，植物学没有专门的名称，甚至可能根本未被认为是一种专门知识。

不幸的是，工业化的程度越高，我们距直接与植物接触就越远，我们的植物学知识的增加也就越微不足道。然而每个人在不知不觉中拥有大量的植物学知识，很少有人认不出玫瑰、苹果或兰花。大约一万年前居住在中东的新时代的祖先们发现某些草能被收获，它们的种子下一季耕种会收获更多时，人类就迈出了人和植物之间的新关系第一大步。谷子被发现后，农业的奇迹从此诞生：这就是可栽培的谷物。从那时起，人类越来越依赖少数可控制的作物生存，而不再是从众多的野生种类中这里获取一点，那里获取一点。这样在千万年中对于野生植物的经验和密切联系中积累起来的知识就开始消失了。

Unit33:Plankton

Scattered through the seas of the world are billions of tons of small plants and animals called plankton.Most of these plants and animals are too small for the human eye to see.They drift about lazily with the currents, providing a basic food for many larger animals.Plankton has been described as the equivalent of the grasses that grow on the dry land continents, and the comparison is an appropriate one.In potential food value, however, plankton far outweighs that of the land grasses.One scientist has estimated that while grasses of the world produce about 49 billion tons of valuable carbohydrates each year, the sea’s plankton generates more than twice as much.Despite its enormous food potential, little effect was made until recently to farm plankton as we farm grasses on land.Now marine scientists have at last begun to study this possibility, especially as the sea’s resources loom even more important as a means of feeding an expanding world population.No one yet has seriously suggested that ― plankton-burgers‖ may soon become popular around the world.As a possible farmed supplementary food source, however, plankton is gaining considerable interest among marine scientists.One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibilities is a tiny shrimp-like creature called krill.Growing to two or three inches long, krill provides the major food for the great blue whale, the largest animal to ever inhabit the Earth.Realizing that this whale may grow to 100 feet and weigh 150 tons at maturity, it is not surprising that each one devours more than one ton of krill daily.44

浮游生物

浮游生物数十亿吨的被称为“浮游生物”的小动物、植物散布在世界的海洋中。这些小的动、植物大多太小而难以被人眼看到。它们随波逐流，为许多较大的动物提供了基本的食物。

浮游生物曾被描述为生长在大陆陆地上的各种草类的海洋对应物。这种比喻是恰当的。然而就潜在的食物价值而言，浮游生物远胜于草类。一位科学家曾经估计，世界上的草类每年生产大约490亿吨有用的碳水化合物，而海洋里的浮游生物每年生产的碳水化合物多于此数的两倍。

尽管浮游生物具备巨大的食物潜能，但直到最近人们还很少象种植草类那样付出努力养殖浮游生物。现在，海洋科学家们至少已开始研究这种可能性。全球人口不断扩张，海洋资源作为食品的重要性日益突出。

现在还没有人认真说过“浮游生物汉堡”会很快在世界上流行起来。然而，作为一种可能养殖的补充性食物资源，浮游生物正引起了海洋科学家们相当大的兴趣。

一种似乎具有很大收获可能性的微小的虾状浮游生物被称为鳞虾。鳞虾长至2～3英寸长时即成为地球上曾居住过的最大动物--蓝鲸的主要食物。成熟的蓝鲸可以达到100英尺长，150吨重，所以每头鲸每天吞食1吨多的鳞虾一点也不让人吃惊。

Unit34:Raising Oysters In the oysters were raised in much the same way as dirt farmers raised tomatoes-by transplanting them.First, farmers selected the oyster bed, cleared the bottom of old shells and other debris, then scattered clean shells about.Next, they ‖planted‖ fertilized oyster eggs, which within two or three weeks hatched into larvae.The larvae drifted until they attached themselves to the clean shells on the bottom.There they remained and in time grew into baby oysters called seed or spat.The spat grew larger by drawing in seawater from which they derived microscopic particles of food.Before long, farmers gathered the baby oysters, transplanted them once more into another body of water to fatten them up.Until recently the supply of wild oysters and those crudely farmed were more than enough to satisfy people’s needs.But today the delectable seafood is no longer available in abundance.The problem has become so serious that some oyster beds have vanished entirely.Fortunately, as far back as the early 1900’s marine biologists realized that if new measures were not taken, oysters would become extinct or at best a luxury food.So they set up well-equipped hatcheries and went to work.But they did not have the proper equipment or the skill to handle the eggs.They did not know when, what, and how to feed the larvae.And they knew little about the predators that attack and eat baby oysters by the millions.They failed, but they doggedly kept at it.Finally, in the 1940’s a significant breakthrough was made.The marine biologists discovered that by raising the temperature of the water, they could induce oysters to spawn not only in the summer but also in the fall, winter, and spring.Later they developed a technique for feeding the larvae and rearing them to spat.Going still further, they succeeded in breeding new strains that were resistant to diseases, grew faster and larger, and flourished in water of different salinities and temperatures.In addition, the cultivated oysters tasted better!46

饲养牡蛎

过去人们饲养牡蛎的方式很大程度上类似于田地里的农夫种植蕃茄--通过移植来饲养它们。首先，农夫选好牡蛎苗床，清除底部的旧壳和其它杂物，然后四处撒播干净的壳。接着，他们“栽种”已受精的牡蛎卵。这些卵在2～3周内会孵化成幼贝。幼贝一直漂流直到粘在苗床底部干净的壳上为止。它们会呆在那儿并逐渐长成小牡蛎。我们称之为种子或贝苗。贝苗吸进海水中的微小生物作为食物从而越长越大。不久之后，农夫将这些小牡蛎收集起来，把它们移种进其他的水域加快其生长，然后再次将它们移种进另外的水域以使其肥壮起来。

直到最近，野生的以及人工饲养的牡蛎完全能够满足人们的需要。但是今天这种可口的海味已不再大量存在。这个问题已经变得如此严重以至于一些牡蛎苗床已完全消失。幸运的是，早在20世纪初期海洋生物学家们就意识到如果不采取新的措施，牡蛎将会灭绝或至少会变为一种奢侈的食品。因此他们建造了装备良好的孵卵场所并开始工作。但是他们尚没有适当的装臵或技术来处理牡蛎卵。他们不知道何时、用什么以及如何喂养幼贝。他们对捕食数百万幼小牡蛎的动物天敌也所知无几。他们失败了，但他们顽强地坚持了下来。终于，在20世纪40年代，一个重要的突破性的进展产生了。

海洋生物学家发现，升高水温能够诱导牡蛎不仅在夏季也在秋季、冬季和春季里产卵。后来他们发展了一项技术来喂养幼贝至其长成贝苗。他们进一步成功地培养出了新的品种，可以抵抗疾病、长得更快、更大并且在不同的盐度和温度的水中都能茁壮生长。此外，这些培殖出的牡蛎口感更佳!

U 47

nit35:Oil Refining An important new industry, oil refining, grew after the Civil war.Crude oil, or petroleum – a dark, thick ooze from the earth – had been known for hundreds of years, but little use had ever been made of it.In the 1850’s Samuel M.Kier, a manufacturer in western Pennsylvania, began collecting the oil from local seepages and refining it into kerosene.Refining, like smelting, is a process of removing impurities from a raw material.Kerosene was used to light lamps.It was a cheap substitute for whale oil, which was becoming harder to get.Soon there was a large demand for kerosene.People began to search for new supplies of petroleum.The first oil well was drilled by E.L.Drake, a retired railroad conductor.In 1859 he began drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania.The whole venture seemed so impractical and foolish that onlookers called it ― Drake’s Folly‖.But when he had drilled down about 70 feet(21 meters), Drake struck oil.His well began to yield 20 barrels of crude oil a day.News of Drake’s success brought oil prospectors to the scene.By the early 1860’s these wildcatters were drilling for ― black gold‖ all over western Pennsylvania.The boom rivaled the California gold rush of 1848 in its excitement and Wild West atmosphere.And it brought far more wealth to the prospectors than any gold rush.Crude oil could be refined into many products.For some years kerosene continued to be the principal one.It was sold in grocery stores and door-to-door.In the 1880’s refiners learned how to make other petroleum products such as waxes and lubricating oils.Petroleum was not then used to make gasoline or heating oil.48

炼油

一种重要的新兴工业--炼油业在国内战争后成长起来。未加工的石油，或原油--一种深色的地下的稠浆--数百年来一直为大众所知，但是人们却很少使用过它。在十九世纪五十年代，萨缪尔M科尔，宾西法尼亚西部的一位制造商，开始从当地的溢出物中收集石油并将它炼成煤油。与冶炼矿石一样，石油提炼是一个从未加工的原料中除去杂质的过程。

煤油被用来点灯。它是鲸油的一种便宜的替代品，而鲸油正变得越来越难以获得。不久就产生了对煤油的大量需求。人们开始寻找新的石油供应。

第一口油井为EL瑞克，一个退休的火车检票员所钻得。1859年他开始在宾西法尼亚的泰特斯维尔钻井。整个的这项冒险事业看起来是如此不现实和愚蠢以致旁观者称之为“鸭子的蠢行”。(译者注：Drake'sFolly,drake在这里意含双关，即指瑞克的名字，又指该词的本义即鸭子。)但当瑞克往下钻至70英尺(21米)的时候，他发现了石油。他的油井从此每天生产20桶原油。

瑞克成功的消息将石油勘探者们吸引到现场。截止到19世纪60年代早期，这些冒险者为寻找“黑色的金子”钻探遍了整个宾西法尼亚西部。这项繁荣的事业在刺激性和粗犷的西部气氛上可与1848年的加州淘金热相媲美，而且它为勘探者带来了远超过淘金潮的财富。

原油能被提炼成许多产品。多年以来煤油一直是主要的一种产品。它在杂货店中出售由人挨户推销。19世纪八十九十年代炼油者们懂得了生产其它石油产品，如蜡和润滑油。那时石油还没有被用来制造汽油或采暖装臵用油。

Unit36:Plate Tectonics and Sea-floor Spreading The theory of plate tectonics describes the motions of the lithosphere, the comparatively rigid outer layer of the Earth that includes all the crust and part of the underlying mantle.The lithosphere(n.[地]岩石圈)is divided into a few dozen plates of various sizes and shapes, in general the plates are in motion with respect to one another.A mid-ocean ridge is a boundary between plates where new lithospheric material is injected from below.As the plates diverge from a mid-ocean ridge they slide on a more yielding layer at the base of the lithosphere.Since the size of the Earth is essentially constant, new lithosphere can be created at the mid-ocean ridges only if an equal amount of lithospheric material is consumed elsewhere.The site of this destruction is another kind of plate boundary: a subduction zone.There one plate dives under the edge of another and is reincorporated into the mantle.Both kinds of plate boundary are associated with fault systems, earthquakes and volcanism, but the kinds of geologic activity observed at the two boundaries are quite different.The idea of sea-floor spreading actually preceded the theory of plate tectonics.In its original version, in the early 1960’s, it described the creation and destruction of the ocean floor, but it did not specify rigid lithospheric plates.The hypothesis was substantiated soon afterward by the discovery that periodic reversals of the Earth’s magnetic field are recorded in the oceanic crust.As magma rises under the mid-ocean ridge, ferromagnetic minerals in the magma become magnetized in the direction of the magma become magnetized in the direction of the geomagnetic field.When the magma cools and solidifies, the direction and the polarity of the field are preserved in the magnetized volcanic rock.Reversals of the field give rise to a series of magnetic stripes running parallel to the axis of the rift.The oceanic crust thus serves as a magnetic tape recording of the history of the geomagnetic field that can be dated independently;the width of the stripes indicates the rate of the sea-floor spreading.50