几篇优美的值得背诵的英文文章

第一篇：几篇优美的值得背诵的英文文章

第一篇：A Grain of Sand 一粒沙子

William Blake/威廉.布莱克

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild fllower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.从一粒沙子看到一个世界，从一朵野花看到一个天堂，把握在你手心里的就是无限，永恒也就消融于一个时辰。

第二篇：Love Your Life

热爱生活

Henry David Thoreau/享利.大卫.梭罗

However mean your life is,meet it and live it;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or friends,Turn the old,return to them.Things do not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.不论你的生活如何卑*，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏。你最富有的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里，你也还有愉快、高兴、光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上，像身在富户人家窗上一样光亮；在那门前，积雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人，我看，倒往往是过着最独立不羁的生活。也许因为他们很伟大，所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是超然的，不靠城镇来支援他们；可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当的手段来对付生活，他们是毫不超脱的，毋宁是不体面的。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧！不要找新的花样，无论是新的朋友或新的衣服，来麻烦你自己。找旧的，回到那里去。万物不变，是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉，但要保留你的思想。第三篇：

The pure.the bright,the beautiful, 一切纯洁的,辉煌的,美丽的, That stirred our hearts in youth, 强烈地震撼着我们年轻的心灵的, The impulses to wordless prayer, 推动着我们做无言的祷告的, The dreams of love and&nbs;truth;让我们梦想着爱与真理的;The longing after something's lost, 在失去后为之感到珍惜的, The spirit's yearning cry, 使灵魂深切地呼喊着的，The striving after better hopes-为了更美好的梦想而奋斗着的-These things can never die.这些美好不会消逝。

The timid hand stretched forth to aid 羞怯地伸出援助的手，A brother in his need, 在你的弟兄需要的时候，A kindly word in grief's dark hour 伤恸、困难的时候，一句亲切的话

That proves a friend indeed;就足以证明朋友的真心；

The plea for mercy softly breathed, 轻声地乞求怜悯，When justice threatens nigh, 在审判临近的时候，The sorrow of a contrite heart-懊悔的心有一种伤感--These things shall never die.这些美好不会消逝。

Let nothing pass for every hand 在人间传递温情

Must find some work to do;尽你所能地去做；

Lose not a chance to waken love-别错失去了唤醒爱的良机-----Be firm,and just ,and true;为人要坚定，正直，忠诚；

So shall a light that cannot fade 因此上方照耀着你的那道光芒

Beam on thee from on high.就不会消失。

And angel ***s say to thee---你将听到天使的声音在说-----These things shall never die.这些美好不会消逝。

第四篇

The life I desired 我所追求的生活

That must be the story of innumerable couples,and the pattern of lifeof life it offers has a homely grace.It reminds you of a placid rivulet,meandering smoohtly through green pastures and shaded by pleasant trees,till at last it falls into the vasty sea;but the sea is so calm,so silent,so infifferent,that you are troubled suddently by a vague uneasiness.Perhaps it is only by a kink in my nature,strong in me even in those days,that i felt in such an existence,the share of the great majority,something amiss.I recognized its social value.I saw its ordered happiness,but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course.There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights.In my heart was desire to live more dangerously.I was not unprepared for jagged rocks and treacherous,shoals it I could only have change-change and the exicitement of unforeseen.这一定是世间无数对夫妻的生活写照，这种生活模式给人一种天伦之美。它使人想起一条平静的溪流，蜿蜒畅游过绿茵的草场，浓荫遮蔽，最后注入烟波浩渺的汪洋大海；但是大海太过平静，太过沉默，太过不动声色，你会突然感到莫名的不安。也许这只是我自己的一种怪诞想法，在那样的时代，这想法对我影响很深：我觉得这像大多数人一样的生活，似乎欠缺了一点儿什么。我承认这种生活有社会价值，我也看到了它那井然有序的幸福，但我血液里的冲动却渴望一种更桀骜不驯的旅程〃这样的安逸中好像有一种叫我惊惧不安的东西〃我的心渴望一种更加惊险的生活。只要生活中还能有变迁———以及不可知的刺激，我愿意踏上怪石嶙峋的山崖，奔赴暗礁满布的海滩。

第二篇：值得背诵的优美句子

背诵

1、请保留一份单纯，使你多一份与人的友善，少一些心灵的冷漠麻木；请保留一份单纯，使你多一份人生的快乐，少一些精神的衰老疲惫；请保留一份单纯，使你多一份奋进的力量，少一些故作高深的看破红尘。

2、成功是你梦寐以求的那朵红玫瑰，挫折正是那遍及周围的针刺。快乐是你辛勤耕耘获得的果实，悲伤正是那成熟前的秕粒。

3、天空收容每一片云彩，不论其美丑，所以天空宽阔无边。大地拥抱每一寸土地，不论其贫富，所以大地广袤无垠。海洋接纳每一条河流，不论其大小，所以海洋广阔无边。

4、当简爱说：“我们是平等的，我不是无感情的机器”，我懂得了作为女性的自尊；当裴多菲说：“若为自由故，两者皆可抛”，我懂得了作为人的价值；当鲁迅说：“不在沉默中爆发，就在沉默中灭亡”，我懂得人应具有反抗精神；当白朗宁说：“拿走爱，世界将变成一座坟墓”，我懂得了为他人奉献爱心的重要。

5、大厦巍然屹立，是因为有坚强的支柱，理想和信仰就是人生大厦的支柱；航船破浪前行，是因为有指示方向的罗盘，理想和信仰就是人生航船的罗盘；列车奔驰千里，是因为有引导它的铁轨，理想和信仰就是人生列车上的铁轨。

6、什么是幸福？幸福是果园里果农望着压满枝头果实的满脸喜色，幸福是教室里莘莘学子憧憬未来的动人笑脸，幸福是实验室里科学家又有新发现时的舒展眉头，幸福是领奖台上运动员仰望国旗冉冉升起时的莹莹泪光。幸福是奋斗的结晶，勤劳的丰碑。

7、未经历坎坷泥泞的艰难，哪能知道阳光大道的可贵；未经历风雪交加的黑夜，哪能体会风和日丽的可爱；未经历挫折和磨难的考验，怎能体会到胜利和成功的喜悦。挫折，想说恨你不容易……

8、幸福，时时刻刻围绕在你身旁。如果你从母亲手中接过饭碗，心存温馨，那就是幸福；如果你在灯下读着朋友的来信，品味友情，那就是幸福；如果你独坐一隅，静静听歌，凝神遐思，那就是幸福

9、有人说，幸福是星级宾馆里山珍海味间的觥筹交错；有人说，幸福是高档舞台厅里动人旋律中的翩翩起舞；有人说，幸福是端座奥迪、宝马车于人流如潮的大街上招摇过市；也有人说，幸福是待在密室里数着成叠的百元大钞；然而我要说：拥有这些，不一定就是真的拥有了幸福！

10、远去的飞鸟，永恒的牵挂是故林；漂泊的船儿，始终的惦记是港湾；奔波的旅人，无论是匆匆夜归还是离家远去，心中千丝万缕、时时惦念的地方，还是家。

11、幸福是什么？是功成名就、受人敬仰吗？是恬静悠闲、无牵无挂吗？是高朋满座、儿孙绕膝吗？我说：幸福是……。

12、人生就像一座山，重要的不是它的高低，而在于灵秀；人生就像一场雨，重要的不是它的大小，而在于及时。

13、要装进一杯新泉，你就必须倒掉已有的陈水；要获取一枝玫瑰，你就必须放弃到手的蔷薇；要多一份独特的体验，你就必须多一份心灵的创伤。

14、“指点江山，激扬文字”是一种豪迈的潇洒，“天生我材必有用”是一种自信的潇洒，“独钓寒江雪”是一种高洁的潇洒，“不破楼兰终不还”是一种悲壮的潇洒。

15、风从水上走过，留下粼粼波纹；阳光从云中穿过，留下丝丝温暖；岁月从树林走过，留下圈圈年轮，朋友，我们从时代的舞台上走过，留下了什么呢？

16、希望大海风平浪静，却常常有狂风和恶浪。希望江河一泻千里，却常常有旋涡和急流，希望生活美满幸福，却常常有悲伤和忧愁。

17．冬天的河干涸了，我相信，春水还会来临，那时白帆就是我心中的偶像；风中的树叶凋零了，我相信，泥土里的梦将在枝头开花结果。

18、天使的翅膀碎了，落到人间，成了我们的忧伤；诚信的被囊抛了，散到世上，成了撒旦的魔杖。

19、没有哪一种胭脂能涂抹时间，没有哪一件服装能掩饰灵魂，没有哪一套古籍能装潢空虚。

20、它可能是一座山，让你感受巍峨，它可能是一片海，让你体会壮阔，它可能是一首交响乐，让你领略激越，它可能是一座石雕，让你明白雄健。

21、在经受了失败和挫折后，我学会了坚韧；在遭受到误解和委屈时，我学会了宽容；在经历了失落和离别后，我懂得了珍惜。

22、不是苦恼太多，只是我们不懂生活；不是幸福太少，只是我们不懂把握。

23、责任感是诸葛孔明“鞠躬尽瘁，死而后已”写就的《出师表》，责任感是孔繁森离家别母血洒高原树立的公仆丰碑，责任感是贝多芬挑战人生超越自我谱写的《命运交响曲》。

24、金钱可以买来名贵的手表，但买不来宝贵的时间；金钱可以买来美味的食品，但买不好的胃口。

25、是一丛秋菊，也要散发芳香；是一片秋叶，也要装点大地；是一株古柏，也要撑起蓝天；是一眼古井，也要流出清泉。

26、尊重别人是一种美德，受人尊重是一种幸福。

27、书是良药，刘向说：“书犹药也，善读可以医愚”；书是益友，臧克家说：“读过一本书，像交了一位益友”；书是窗户，高尔基说：“每一本书，都在我面前打开了一扇窗户”。

28、成熟是一种素质，一种源于心灵表于行动的素质；成熟是一种能力，一种自我约束自我管理的能力；成熟是一种态度，一种对任何事物都保持冷静的态度；成熟是一种心境，一种能看淡一切，万事淡如水的心境。

29、信念之于人，犹翅膀之于鸟，信念是飞翔的翅膀

30、爱心是一片照射在冬日的阳光，它使贫病交迫的人分外感到人间的温暖；爱心是一泓出现在沙漠的泉水，它使濒临绝境的人重新看到生活的希望。

31、包装是房子富丽堂皇的外壳，包装是丑妇手上绚丽的太阳伞，包装是模特在舞台上走出的一字猫步。

32、“慈母手中线，游子身上衣”说的是亲情；“人生得一知己足，斯世当以同怀视之”说的是友情，“曾经沧海难为水，除却巫山不是云”说的是爱情；“苟利国家生死以，岂因祸福避趋之”说的是爱国情。写作精彩语段集锦

（一）排比、比喻

1、面对着苍茫的群山，面对着无际的原野，面对着清澈的小溪，面对着芳郁的野花，面对着浅浅的草叶，我沉默，我惊叹，我欣喜，我欢乐，我无言。

2、我还是爱着属于我的初三的。爱属于初三给与我的心旷神怡的时刻：当你冥思苦想，而终于恍然大悟的时候，你会品尝成功的喜悦；当你忙里偷闲和别人闲聊上几句家常时，你会发现生活的乐趣；当你趁着课间十分钟一瞥窗外那云卷云舒的宽容时，你会感到心灵的轻松与惬意。所以，我说——初三是一幅流光溢彩的油画，是一片充满幻想的云霞，是一个充满竞争的年华。

3、初三让我受益匪浅，她让我明白了珍惜时间才不会虚度此生的真谛，她让我懂得了珍爱人生就要去拼搏去奋斗的道理。如醉如痴，她让我用激情吮吸着知识的甘露；豁然开朗，她让我用真诚去探寻着做人的美好。

4、追求，就是千年不变的至情，百代流传的绮梦；是沁人心脾，令人留连的田园风光；是一个人、一个家、一个民族、一个国家奋斗不息的崇高理想。因为有了追求，才有了一个个古老而又美好的传说；有了追求，才有了一座座绵延无边、用血肉筑起的钢铁长城；有了追求，才有了一尊尊屹立于天地之间、永不低头的雕像。

5、美丽是平凡的，平凡得让你感觉不到她的存在；美丽是平淡的，平淡得只剩下温馨的记忆；美丽又是平静的，平静的只有你费尽心思才能激起她的涟漪。

6、有人爱雾，爱它的朦胧，爱它的缥缈；有人爱霜，爱它的洁白，爱它的淡雅；也有人爱露，爱它的晶莹剔透，爱它的娇小玲珑；更有人爱雪，爱它的纯洁，爱它的素雅。

当暴风雨来袭时，林海枝舞叶涌，俯仰起伏，万千树干就是万千根摇曳的琴弦，弹奏出惊心动魄的交响乐；云雾涌来，一切淹没在白茫茫的浪涛之下，变成一片摇摆晃动的海底森林；但当热带雨倾泻过后，太阳重又照耀，亿万叶片上的水珠，闪烁出亿万晶莹的星星，眩人眼目。而我，唯独钟情于雨。（开头）

7、是的，童心无价。拥有了童心，你便会拥有天真纯洁、无私无邪的品格；拥有了童心，你便会忘记生活中的琐屑愁事，快乐的面对人生；拥有了童心，你便会懂得如何面对生活，享受生活。

8、人生好似调味盘，酸得是惆怅，苦的是锻炼，辣的是过程，甜的是成功。

9、花一样的你，花一样的我，花一样的年华，花一样的世界，花一样的未来。不要在虚度光阴，不要在碌碌无为。经常同自己谈话吧，你会更了解自己，你会过的更充实，你会更真心地热爱这个美好的世界。（结尾）

10、亲爱的朋友们，不要抱怨长路漫漫走得不潇洒浪漫，其实艰难困苦就是你成功的摇篮，让长风的翅膀携你过尽千帆，让心思的呼唤伴你尝过生命的难关。只要心中的风景不凋零，生命的叶子永远不会枯黄腐烂，永葆一颗接受磨砺的心，人生将会永远是春天。（议论）

（二）引用诗词、名言

11、爷爷告诉我，奶奶生前最爱梧桐。李清照‘梧桐更兼细雨’是一种思愁；李煜‘寂寞梧桐深院锁清秋’是‘剪不断’的离愁；周邦彦‘桐花半亩，静锁一庭愁雨’寄托的也是一腔愁绪。在梧桐树下，我学会了很多诗词，也渐渐地懂得了诗人们的心情。

12、我爱那‚飞流直下三千尺，疑是银河落九天‛的庐山瀑布；我爱那‚荡胸生层云，决眦入归鸟‛的泰山极顶；我爱那‚奔流到海不复归‛的黄河九曲；我爱那‚两岸猿声啼不住‛的长江三峡；我爱那‚秦时明月汉时关‛的古朴塞北；我爱好那‚日江花红胜火‛的秀丽江南

第三篇：几篇优美的背诵英文文章

几篇优美的背诵英文文章

第一篇：

A Grain of Sand

一粒沙子

William Blake/ 威廉.布莱克

To see a world in a grain of sand，And a heaven in a wild fllower，Hold infinity in the palm of your hand，And eternity in an hour.从一粒沙子看到一个世界，从一朵野花看到一个天堂，把握在你手心里的就是无限，永恒也就消融于一个时辰。

第二篇：

Love Your Life

热爱生活

Henry David Thoreau/ 享利.大卫.梭罗

However mean your life is,meet it and live it;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.which should be more

disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or friends,Turn the old,return to them.Things do not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.不论你的生活如何卑 *，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏。你最富有的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里，你也还有愉快、高兴、光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上，像身在富户人家窗上一样光亮；在那门前，积雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人，我看，倒往往是过着最独立不羁的生活。也许因为他们很伟大，所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是超然的，不 * 城镇来支援他们；可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当的手段来对付生活，他们是毫不超脱的，毋宁是不体面的。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧！不要找新的花样，无论是新的朋友或新的衣服，来麻烦你自己。找旧的，回到那里去。万物不变，是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉，但要保留你的思想。

第三篇：

The pure.the bright,the beautiful, 一切纯洁的,辉煌的,美丽的，That stirred our hearts in youth, 强烈地震撼着我们年轻的心灵的, The impulses to wordless prayer, 推动着我们做无言的祷告的 , The dreams of love and truth;让我们梦想着爱与真理的

;The longing after something's lost, 在失去后为之感到珍惜的 , The spirit's yearning cry, 使灵魂深切地呼喊着的 , The striving after better hopesThese things can never die.这些美好不会消逝。

The timid hand stretched forth to aid 羞怯地伸出援助的手，A brother in his need, 在你的弟兄需要的时候，A kindly word in grief's dark hour 伤恸、困难的时候，一句亲切的话

That proves a friend indeed;就足以证明朋友的真心；

The plea for mercy softly breathed, 轻声地乞求怜悯，When justice threatens nigh, 在审判临近的时候，The sorrow of a contrite heart-懊悔的心有一种伤感

--These things shall never die.这些美好不会消逝。

Let nothing pass for every hand 在人间传递温情

Must find some work to do;尽你所能地去做；

Lose not a chance to waken love-别错失去了唤醒爱的良机

-----Be firm,and just ,and true;为人要坚定，正直，忠诚；

So shall a light that cannot fade 因此上方照耀着你的那道光芒

Beam on thee from on high.就不会消失。

And angel voices say to thee---你将听到天使的声音在说

-----These things shall never die.这些美好不会消逝。

第五篇

The life I desired

我所追求的生活

That must be the story of innumerable couples,and the pattern of life of life it offers has a homely grace.It reminds you of a placid rivulet,meandering smoohtly through green pastures and shaded by pleasant trees,till at last it falls into the vasty sea;but the sea is so calm,so silent,so infifferent,that you are troubled suddently by a vague uneasiness.Perhaps it is only by a kink in my nature,strong in me even in those days,that i felt in such an existence,the share of the great majority,something a miss.I recognized its social value.I saw its ordered happiness,but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course.There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights.In my heart was desire to live more dangerously.I was not unprepared for jagged rocks and treacherous,shoals it I could only have change-change and the exicitement of unforeseen.这一定是世间无数对夫妻的生活写照，这种生活模式给人一种天伦之美。它使人想起一条平静的溪流，蜿蜒畅游过绿茵的草场，浓荫遮蔽，最后注入烟波浩渺的汪洋大海；但是大海太过平静，太过沉默，太过不动声色，你会突然感到莫名的不安。也许这只是我自己的一种怪诞想法，在那样的时代，这想法对我影响很深：我觉得这像大多数人一样的生活，似乎欠缺了一点儿什么。我承认这种生活有社会价值，我也看到了它那井然有序的幸福，但我血液里的冲动却渴望一种更桀骜不驯的旅程．这样的安逸中好像有一种叫我惊惧不安的东西．我的心渴望一种更加惊险的生活。只要生活中还能有变迁———以及不可知的刺激，我愿意踏上怪石嶙峋的山崖，奔赴暗礁满布的海滩。

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrown.Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same.And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should even come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I---I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference 未 选 择 的 路

（美）弗罗斯特

黄色的树林里分出两条路，可惜我不能同时去涉足，我在那路口久久伫立，我向着一条路极目望去，直到它消失在丛林深处。

但我却选了另外一条路，它荒草萋萋，十分幽寂，显得更诱人、更美丽，虽然在这两条小路上，都很少留下旅人的足迹，虽然那天清晨落叶满地，两条路都未经脚印污染。呵，留下一条路等改日再见！但我知道路径延绵无尽头，恐怕我难以再回返。

也许多少年后在某个地方，我将轻声叹息把往事回顾，一片树林里分出两条路，而我选了人迹更少的一条，从此决定了我一生的道路。

《假如生活欺骗了你》英文版

If by life you were deceived, Don't be dismal, don't be wild!In the day of grief, be mild Merry days will come, believe.Heart is living in tomorrow;Present is dejected here;In a moment, passes sorrow;That which passes will be dear

第四篇：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

第五篇：几篇优美的背诵英文文章(二)

Time Is Money “Time is money.” This saying means that time is very valuable.But time is more valuable than money.The money we have lost can be gained again, but the time we have wasted cannot be regained.Moreover, sometimes persons can exist without money, but nothing can be done without time, just as no one can live without air.Despite being so valuable, time is often neglected by men.Since time is an invisible thing, men often waste their time unconsciously（无意地）.Without anything to do, they may gossip from morning till night.Man can live only at most to about 100 years.It seems fairly long, but in fact it is rather short.We often say “How quickly time flies!” How many things can a man accomplish in such a short period? Hence we should use the valuable time properly to do our work.We will race with it.We will study and work hard.Never waste a little bit of it.Try to Be a Good Student Perhaps it is the dream of everyone to be a good student at school, but quite a few students feel at a loss on how to make it.In my opinion it is rather easy if you can act on the following points.First of all, make full use of your time and work hard.Don’t put off till tomorrow what should be done today, as time past will never come back.The fast developing society requires adequate knowledge, which presses us to spare no efforts to study.Of course, your hard work will be rewarded one day.Secondly, use your own head and present your point of view.Credulous（轻信的）attitude will only make you take anything for granted.With your own judgment you will be able to tell right from wrong and set up your own theory.Thirdly, set aside enough time for relaxation, entertainment, etc.don’t ignore the harm of all work and no play.Proper sports will build up your body and improve the efficiency of your studying.To be a good student is easier said than done, for it needs a student’s consistent efforts.But nothing is difficult to a man if he puts his heart into it.Natural Resources Nature has provided us with many kinds of resources.Almost everything we use in our everyday life comes from Nature.The food we eat, the water we drink, the clothes we wear, the concrete and bricks to build our houses, the materials to make bikes we ride, etc.all come originally from Nature.People have been making use of these natural supplies for thousands of years.With the development of technology and the increase of the population, the amount and range of materials taken has increased.It is estimated that this tread will continue in the years to come.However, natural resources are not in exhaustible.Some resources are already nearly used up.For example, the end of the world’s fuel is already within sight.Such an essential daily item as water is in short supply in many parts of the world.We can no longer thoughtlessly use the many resources provided by Nature.We must learn to conserve what remains.We Have Only One World When industries grow, pollution also grows.Today the problem of environment has become more and more important.The world population is rising so quickly that the world has become too crowded.We are using up our natural resources too quickly and at the same time we are polluting our environment with dangerous chemicals.If we don’t take action immediately, then we will destroy our only world.Man has made great progress in environment protection.Government of many countries has established laws to protect the forest and sea resource and to stop the environmental pollution.Still more measures should be taken to solve the problem.First, we should start by educating the public about the hazards of pollution.The government on its part should also design stricter laws.This is not only for our own generation but also for the future generation to come.It is necessary to protect our nature environment.We must begin now to protect our only world.Make the Best Use of Our Land It is the land that has been providing us with everything we need for centuries.In other words, almost everything we use daily comes from the land directly or indirectly.The food, clothes, houses, even the books and furniture are all supplied by the land.But the limited land is decreasing at a surprising speed.With the expanding of the cities, the development of the industry and over population, lots of large pieces of good farmland are being turned into residential areas with many houses and apartment buildings, or industrial areas, or warehouses.Therefore some measures must be taken to stop the abusing of our farmland.On the other hand, we should let everyone realize the danger of being short of land.And also we should educate them how to make better use of our land.Health

It is said that we do not properly value a thing until we have lost it.It is only when a friend dies that we find out how much he was to us.So it is with health.When we are young and strong and have good health, we think little about it.It seems natural to us to be always well, and we cannot imagine what it is like to be ill.Wo we are often careless about our health, and without thinking we spoil our health by bad habits and doing silly things.It is only when we have our good health that we find that it was one of God’s best gifts to us.Health is our most important possession.We should do our best to maintain it.Good health is necessary to happiness and success.People who are in poor health are often pessimistic or depressed.As a rule, bad health means misery and failure.How can we keep our health? Only by knowing and carefully obeying the laws of health.A happy man is a healthy man, and only the healthy man can live a happy life.The desire for good health is universal.Everyone who loves life understands how important health is.First, good health is the guarantee for enjoying life.The only desire of a patient is always to live an ordinary and healthy life.Second, good health establishes a firm foundation for your ambition of the career.Without it, any lofty aspiration turns to be a daydream.Then how to keep fit? Everyone has his own answers to this question, while I think three principal suggestions should be followed.The first one is that a scientific diet should be adopted, which offers the necessities for your body.The second one is that physical exercises must be persisted, especially for the indoor people.The last, but not the least, is that the cheerful mood should be kept.In order to keep fit, I force myself to keep away from the “junk food”, although it usually tastes good, I even form a good habit of doing morning exercises.And the beautiful music and good books always cheer me up.Sports and Games Sports and games do a lot of good to our health.They can make us strong, prevent us from getting too fat, and keep healthy and fit.Especially they can be of great value to people who work with their brains most of the day, for sports and games give people valuable practice in exercising the body.What’s more, they make our life richer and more colourful.If we do not have a strong body, we will find it hard to do whatever we want.So persons of all ages enjoy watching and taking part in various kinds of sports-track and fields, swimming, skating, football, volleyball and basketball, etc.Sports and games are also very useful in character training.They demand not only physical skills and strength but also courage, endurance, discipline and usually teamwork.For boys and girls, what is learned in the playground often has a deep effect on their character.If each of them learns to work for his team and not for himself on the football field, he will later find it natural to work for the good of his country instead of only for his own benefit.A healthy citizen makes a strong country.Let’s all take part in sports and games.Smoking It is well known that smoking does harm to the health.Today, so many people still keep smoking, which has drawn wide attention of the society.Smoking has so many disadvantages but no advantages at all.First, the cigarettes with nicotine in them do great harm to the health.Such diseases as pneumonia, lung cancer may be caused or partly caused by them.Furthermore, the bad effects of cigarettes cost the smokers lots of money, which could be spent on other meaningful things.Thirdly, the accidents of fire all over the world every year are mostly caused by the still-burning butts(end).The government has formulated the regulation of no smoking in public places.Yet its result is not so satisfactory.From my point of view, it needs the common efforts of the society.Not only the nonsmokers but the smokers should cooperate on this matter.My Views on Large Modern Cities Since every coin has two sides, living in large modern cities offers us many advantages, simultaneously causes many troubles.Better education and better jobs are easy to get, and better medical care is convenient to receive in large modern cities.People are usually well informed due to the advanced media, such as television, newspaper and net PC.Large modern cities also provide varied entertainment for the city-dwellers.The public places like cinema, bar, disco-ball are everywhere.On the other hand, large modern cities are too big to control, so the traffic jams and traffic accidents often happen, and the social security is a headache problem.And city-dwellers have to face the housing problem.Usually a house is too expensive for the salary earning class to buy and the rent is also high.Moreover, noise and pollution in large cities bring harm to people’s health.Live in the City or in the Country Where do you like to live, in the city or in the country? Most cities are centers of economy, trade, transportation or culture.With the development of economy and society, more and more people have flooded into the cities, which make the scale of the cities larger and larger.Surely, it is very convenient for shopping, education, business and so on.But it also has many disadvantages: the large population makes it crowded in each corner of the city;the big factories, too many cars, buses and trucks pollute the clean air;too much noise can make people mad.To live in the city, one even can’t get enough room for living.To live in the country is another thing.You can breathe the fresh air cheerfully, own a spacious house with a big backyard, and relax yourself in quietness.But when you want to go shopping, or take your child to school, perhaps you will complain about its inconvenient transportation, its remoteness…I am an ordinary person.I am always longing for the peaceful idyllic（田园诗般的）

life of the countryside.