2008星火30篇文章贯通考研词汇

2008星火30篇文章贯通考研词汇(1)
Unit 1 The Permit

许可证

因生活困苦，我不得不离开家乡去外国打工。我把大部分钱都寄给了妻子和父母。然而不久，政府要求我们必须有工作许可证才能继续打工。后来，我们就遭遇到种种无理待遇……

I think the building must have been used as a farmer's winter store, for I found piles of forgotten dried chestnuts and grain in rotting barrels. I tried the chestnuts but they tasted sour, Paulo said he would bring me food, but that was three days ago.

Yesterday, I heard a car engine getting closer, and climbed up to hide in the beams of the patched roof. But the men just looked in quickly through the worn-out windows and broken doors before they left. I clung to the dusty wooden beam, feeling it would bend under my weight, and tried to make no noise. My arms and legs grew numb, then began to tremble. I longed to move, but I waited until I heard the policemen drive off.

I know that they will return. When we began the final part of our journey, we were warned that the police patrolled the land around here regularly. They are always searching for us, or others like us; the coast of Morocco (摩洛哥) and the Presidio (要塞) of Ceuta (休达，摩洛哥北部港市) are only ten miles away across the Straits.

That is how I got here: squeezed in with fifteen other men in a shallow boat meant for eight, with the cold waves reaching over the sides and the night deep and black as a tomb. I have never been more scared. I prayed all the way across, and thought about my family. I told myself, over and over, that I was doing it for them. That trip took almost all of my money. All of the money I had saved in Ecuador (厄瓜多尔) . The boatmen left us on a beach in the middle of the night. We lost sight of them but we could still hear their small engine across the waves. Six of us started walking inland but the others waited for the contacts, the friends of the boatmen, as they had been told.

We were lucky: we met Paulo. We found the town and waited until the first bar opened; I went in alone while the others hid in the orchard nearby. When I asked for a cup of coffee, the young barman (侍者) looked at me and nodded. He made the coffee, then disappeared into the back room. Cold and without strength, I wrapped my hands around the warm cup, not caring whether the barman had called the police, not caring about the next moment, just about the present.

But the man had called Paulo, who came and helped us. Paulo was always smiling, always happy. He was from Seville (塞维利亚) , a busy city of many people, and he knew many people. Paulo found work for us. I made good money on the farms. I picked cabbages, beans, cucumbers and peas. I picked great round yellow squashes (南瓜) that smelled of rich perfume when you broke them. The farmers hired us by the day, and were content. The local people would never work for the wages we are paid. But there were many farms, and many crops to be picked. We were welcomed.

I shared a small clean house in the town with seven other workers. We had journeyed from Ecuador, Colombia (哥伦比亚) , Venezuela (委内瑞拉) , even Argentina (阿根廷) . Paulo found the house for us - he knew the landlord and arranged a good price. We lived well, with enough food and sometimes wine. I earned more in a week than I could in three months back home if there had been work to do there. I sent most of the money that was left to my wife and parents, and wrote many letters to them. Then the government changed the rules so that we needed work permits.

I queued with hundreds of other workers, waiting for the application forms. We sat on the stone benches beneath the trees and read the forms. Some of the other workers are from small villages and towns, and cannot read as well as I can, so I explained to them that the government wanted our birth certificates, driving licenses, passports and many other documents. Many of the workers had perhaps one or two of these documents, but most had none. I helped the others complete the forms and we gave them to the clerk. He looked at our documents, stamped the forms many times and told us that they would be sent to Madrid (马德里) , and our permits would be returned in two or three months if the forms were approved.

We had to wait. Even Paulo and his friends could not help us.

The first month was not too bad as most of the farmers continued to use us; their crops were rich, waiting to be picked. Then some men from Madrid visited all of the farms, and maybe half of the farmers stopped using us. The farmers told us that they were sorry, and we understood them.

So the second month was worse: only a few of the farmers would use us, and those that did pay very poor wages. We shared what we had, and ate once a day: rice, porridge(粥), bread, cheap food that would fill our stomachs. We began to stare at each other, and wonder which of us would find work. There were fights in the morning, between different groups of workers, when the farms' supervisors (管理人，监工) came to choose who would work that day. But still we had some hope.

We lost the house in the third month, as we had no money for rent. We were able to get some food from the charity kitchens around the town, and the church, but we found always a long queue and very little food. We took our bags and blankets and slept in the fields. Then the weather became cold and we slept where we could, huddled together, in old forgotten buildings and alleys (小巷). Sometimes I dreamed of my family, and when I awoke, I wished the dream could continue.

The people of the town stared at us from the sides of their eyes as they passed us. They clenched(握紧) their hands and muttered, and some of them spat on the pavement. A few of us were attacked and beaten in the dark, and driven from the parks and streets. All of the time, the Police told us to move on, move on.

It is the end of the third month when it happens.

The farmers hired coaches and send them into the town. From four o'clock in the morning we waited in agitating silence, hands pushed deep into pockets, our hats pulled down tight against the cold and the watching policemen.

By the time the coaches arrived, there are hundreds of workers waiting in the darkness. We pressed forward as the doors opened. The supervisors stood on the bottom steps of the coaches and asked, "Who has the permit?"

The men with permits hold them up and were allowed onto the coaches.

Some of the workers were from the countries in Europe and did not need permits, so they were allowed on when they showed their passports. I went from coach to coach until I saw a group of Chileans (智利人), who I knew have no permits, climbing aboard a waiting coach. The leader of their group spoke first with the foreman and shook his hand, then they were taken on. I stood before the supervisor.

“You have the permit?”he asked me. He was broad, stout (肥胖的)and filled the doorway of the coach. His fat neck spilt from the upturned (向上翻的) collar of his leather jacket. His hair was shaven close to his head. I explain to him that my application was rejected but I would try again.

“Come back when you have a permit,” he told me. He frowned as he inhaled (吸入，吸气) a smoke and looked down the avenue to where the policemen were watching the coaches. I explained to him that I was a hard worker, that I had eaten only once in three days, that I was eager to work and send money to my family.

He looked at the policemen, who had started walking along the pavement beside the coaches, and glared at me and says, “Go to Madrid and tell them.”

The Chileans were laughing and pointing at me through the coach windows.

The supervisor tossed his half-finished cigarette into the gutter(排水沟) by my foot. At the moment I stabbed him in the stomach. He bent down with a small cry.

The policemen looked at us and I began to run away from the coaches, into the dark side streets. I heard loud running steps close behind me, and the roar of car engines.

I slid into the shadows of a shop's back door, behind two tall metal containers that stank (发出臭味) of rotting meat and spoiled foodstuff (食品). I gasped, and each breath burnt. My heart hammered against my chest.

I waited for a long time until the sounds of the cars and people faded. I walked slowly to the end of the alley and looked out, but the streets were empty.

I had run almost to the river; I could hear it rushing in the darkness beneath me.

My right hand felt cold. I looked down in the yellow light of a street lamp, and saw my hand still clenched into a fist. It looked like the hand of another person, not part of me. A short blade, no longer than my thumb, stuck out from the fist. The blade, my fist, and my sleeve were all stained dark red.

Paulo gave me the knife when I picked artichokes on the farms. The short thick blade is very sharp, made for cutting the plants' stalks.

I scrambled down to the banks of the river and threw the knife into the river water. I heard it splashed far away. The river touched my feet. I bowed down and washed my sleeve and hand, although the water was so cold, like ice, that my hand became numb. Then I walked back up to the street.

I found some of the other workers hiding in the deserted warehouse we had found. One of them went to find Paulo, who came and told me about the old farm buildings near to the coast road. I waited until darkness before I followed the road out of the town, throwing myself into the ditch if I heard a car approaching.

The weather has been clear and I have seen the coast of Morocco every day. Across the blue sea, the land is a strip of dark brown and gray, and looks close enough for me to touch. Maybe I could find an old tractor tyre tube around the farm and float across the Straits? Or maybe I could walk along the shore and steal a boat?

I do not want to become a thief. I am an honest man who wants only to work and support his family. But what can I do?

I will wait here for Paulo and listen to him. He will tell me what to do for the best. I know that he will help me.

Unit 2 Timeless Photographs

价值永存的老照片

生活中有很多小事经常为人们忽略，但有时其中蕴含的亲情却会令人回味许久。父亲留下的老照片告诉我，人们并没有什么不同，所有人都想充分享受人生乐趣，体味家的温馨。全家团聚的时刻是珍贵的……

I love to look at old photographs in the album. My father had a big box of pictures in the cabinet and some of the pictures go way back to the 1890's. The women dressed with such dignity and had style back then. My Dad would linger around his precious box of photographs and tell me stories about each photo and very one. It was one of those moments that you could not really appreciate when you were young. It is only after he was long gone that I can look back and say thanks for taking the time to show me a tiny window into the world of people who really did know how to live.

I found a few of my aunts in their fashionable outfits by an old Cadillac(卡迪拉克，汽车名) pretending to drink whisky. Many of the photographs were taken in Coney Island(科尼岛) and Cape Cod(科德角). I especially love the photographs of the bathing beauties and their swimsuits. The suits are quite modest by today's standards but the young women didn't seem to care. They were staying at such places as Newport Beach and Cape Cod having the time of their lives running in and out of the tide. One photograph had a vendor(小贩)selling dogs(热狗)by a coaster(轮船)at Coney Island—a younger picture of my mother with here brown hair and blue eyes eager to go on board with my Dad. He looked a bit frightened in the picture as I could see he was holding on tightly to the bar to the coaster, his black hair flying in the breeze. I smile when I look at that picture because it is hard to imagine anyone's Dad ever being a kid. He looked like he was having a great time probably because he was with my mother. She is smiling in the picture and wearing a white blouse, blue shorts and tennis shoes. She is quite a looker(美女),I can see why my Dad liked her so much.

I dig down to the bottom of the box and see two large photographs. One is dated 1900 and the other one is dated 1997—a recent picture that looks similar to the older one. The older picture looks familiar because it is taken in the same place—the summer home.

I will describe the older photograph as very interesting in the style of dress and exactly(确切地，精确地) where the people are sitting. They are posed outside the cottage by a small tree that is still there today. A woman is sitting in a rocking chair, with here black hair pulled up in a bun(脑后的发髻).She is not smiling but looking away from the camera and wearing a long black dress. Another woman is wearing a white blouse with a necktie(领结)and a long black skirt. Her hair is also long and blonder(金黄色的)but pulled back in a bun. There are two men on either side of a wooden table. Both men appear older and are dressed in hats and suits and ties, trousers and Sunday shoes. Neither is smiling. (I have the distinct feeling that the women are their wives and it is Sunday.) They probably are hungry for their roast beef and potatoes, but that is just my guess. There is a young boy, probably about 13 in the photograph. He is wearing a white blouse, black shorts, long black socks and tan sports shoes. He is petting a black dog that is sitting on top of the round wooden table. The boy is bending down and he isn't smiling either. It must have been hot outside and he probably wants to go for a swim with the dog. The water is just below them and he is probably wondering why he has to take this stupid picture all dressed up on a Sunday.

I notice that the color of my cabin was quite different in 1900 and it was much smaller. The color was green, with white railings(栏杆)around the porch and steps leading down to the patio(院子). That is where the picture of this Smart Family was taken. The family appears rather stiff in the photo but I am sure that they had a good laugh after the Sunday dinner was served.

The second larger photograph is of my own family about 1997. It is also in black and white. We didn't wear any older clothes but used our own clothes. The tree in the background has grown to enormous heights and is still standing. The steps leading down to Mousam Lake have cracked and are in awful need of repair. Believe it or not, we still own the old wooden table and all of the rocking chairs owned by the Smart Family. I did a search of the Smart Family and they were originally from Portsmouth(朴茨茅斯). At least five other families owned my cottage before my father bought it in 1950 for three thousand dollars. The cottage comes with thirteen acres of land that I still own along with my seven brothers and sisters. It was passed on to me when my mother died. We have formed the Camp Fund to pay the taxes and preserve our legacy. It is a beautiful cabin on a prime spot on Mousam Lake. I was not here when this photo was taken and it hangs in the living room of the cabin. Many visitors comment on it and think it is quite amazing to have a house for so long.

The history of the house is interesting to view from photographs. Around the table are my brother Bob just wearing a casual shirt and shorts(smiling), Annie wearing a T-Shirt and shorts. Mike wearing a white shirt and long nylon trousers not smiling, Mary, whom I couldn't tell what she was wearing, my Mom, her white hair and her beautiful blue eyes and smile, was wearing a peach blouse and slacks, my Dad wasn't alive for this photo, he died in 1986. Lastly in the picture is my brother John, wearing a white vest, trousers and suspenders. He slicked(使光滑、顺滑)back his black hair for the photo to appear in the period style. He wasn't smiling either. The only difference is that my cottage is painted brown with a larger porch and some additional buildings. My father loved to build things and he was constantly improving the cabin. He built a deck downstairs, and also a dock for his many boats. He also designed a gliding swing and a picnic table.

All of these photographs remind me that people are not so very different. We all want to enjoy living and be together as a family. The time that families spend together is very valuable. The children will always remember the little things that their parents do for them. For me it was my Dad that showed me these pictures and took the time to tell me the stories behind each of them. I thank him dearly for that.

Unit 3 The Story of My Romance

我的恋爱故事

生活就像车轮一样旋转，从早晨开始，晚上很晚才结束，第二天早上又重新开始。没有停顿，没有休息，没有丝毫改变。生活在其中的你，是否会感到疲惫和乏味？或者，寻找一些浪漫或刺激?

Tanya got out of the bed while the sun was still asleep. “Would I be able to watch sunrise today?” She asked her heart. She knew the answer but was afraid to tell herself. Mike, her husband, was still in bed and so were her four kids. Even their sleep couldn’t prevent her from doing them service. She arranged her work to the microscopic(缩小的)details. From pressing clothes to polishing shoes, finding sports socks to putting school bags in order, fixing up breakfast to preparing snack-boxes, she wanted to make it all happen like magic, She did it all, like a magician(魔术师).

Life ran like a wheel. The circle started every morning and ended up late in the night, and then morning appeared again. There was no pause, no rest, not even a slight change to insert the circle. She condemned herself for not experiencing even a thought of ever getting out of this circle, but she just committed herself to the orbit of life.

Coming out of the bathroom, she turned and looked at her wrinkled face in the mirror and gasped a tired answer to her long asked question, “never, you just keep driving in the sunset.”She shook her head to wing away those vicious butterflies in her mind. She knew she couldn’t join them so she didn’t want them to hang around her either.

She entered the kitchen and heard Mike yelling in his uneasy voice for the absence of his towel in the bathroom. Her youngest daughter Karen started crying that she didn’t want to go to school that day. Nicole, the eldest(最年长的),couldn’t help herself but to blame Daniel for the overnight fragmentation(破坏)of her dollhouse(玩具屋)while Randal registered his protest from his bed that he was not going lo drink milk in breakfast like every day. In the kitchen, sugar had run out. So she was still looking for that magic wand(杖).

She never got to know when morning ran into noon: even the clock failed to tell her that. Mike left for office still screaming and shouting for his towel and the school bus only arrived after the kids had swallowed their breakfast. Their absence couldn’t cease her work for there was too much work to do. She was planning to send dirty clothes to laundry when the doorbell rang. It had been so long nobody coming to their home that she had forgotten what their doorbell sounded like. She tried to guess who could it be but not a single name appeared in her mind. She opened the door with an uncertain(不确定的)hope but only found the postman standing in the door to vanish that uncertainty(不确定).

“Hi David! Since when did you start ringing the doorbell? ”Words flew out of her mouth without her own consent.

“Ever since I was a kid. In my childhood 1 would ring the bell and run away. ”David was a

cheerful(快乐的)postman.

“But you don’t need to run away now. ”

“No。not until you have signed and received your letter. ”

“My letter! Who could send that?”

“I am not sure. It’s someone named L.H.M. Sounds like a postgraduate degree to me. ”

“Never mind, I’11 sign it.”

Tanya received the letter. It was a registered letter from within the town. She wondered who could that L.H.M. be. She opened the envelope and the mystery that was enclosed in it. The handwriting sparked a memory but she felt too overwhelmed to scrape her past. Her heartbeat(G"跳)started flying like butterfly wings.

It wasn’t just a letter with ordinary words written on a piece of paper. She could feel those words blazing over her heart. They were telling her stories of her long lost love.

My flowered wish Tanya!

I once saw my home in the streets of your palm, my destiny in the smiles of your promises, and my shelter in the shadows of your eyes. I treasured all your whispers under my pillow, your fragrance in my breaths, and your name in my ears. Your face still lightens(使发亮)up the sky in the night, your voice still rhymes them rain fall, and your hair still soften the wind.

The sun always rose from the sparkle of your eyes.

And then, time flew you away into someone else's world. That sun vanished and ever since I haven't seen a sunrise.

Life is spending me and I am aging. Days keep climbing the mountain of years. Moon disguises its face in the clouds and the night refuses to bring sleep onto my pillow. I fight your memories and defeat myself. The pain-waves of your absence storm through my stale heart and leave it in a misery.

My face has lived with me for ten cold winters, now l want to feel the warmth of your face. Bring the sunshine of your eyes to me. Meet me while the sun sets this Sunday at the river bridge. My eyes will be measuring the passage until you come.

Larry

The letter ended and left her standing at the door of her time-faded memories. Larry was her classmate in college days. He lived in her heart and she dreamed his eyes. They had planned to get married after graduation as soon as Larry found a good job. It took him a year to find one and this expansion of time let Mike surface. Mike was an elegant and handsome man with already a good job. Larry got a first-rate job the day Tanya got married.

In the next six months, Larry left the country and Tanya moved to Wisconsin(威斯康星州). Mike’s love scattered into his job, kids and Tanya. She did the same to him, except for the job. Her concern was to take care of the kids and the home. “Easier said than done”, she liked this phrase ever since. Her housework imprisoned(关押)her wishes and she couldn’t even wish for her freedom.

And today, after more than ten years, a letter came into her life like a butterfly carrying on its wings, words written in rainbow colors. It was Wednesday and she wished to jump over those three days into the Sunday sunset.

She never got to know when the kids came back from the school and how she spent the rest of the day. The days had started flying with her. In the night she would read that letter to the moon, the stars and the breeze. She would tell them stories of her low; the first time she met Larry, her first words and her first kiss. Every inch of her memory had a bond to a whole new memory. Now she remembered everything; every ray the sun ever endowed on her love. She could feel a powerful freedom that was removing those tedious thoughts from her mind and thrusting life into her veins. Life was wearing hope now.

The time from Sunday morning to evening was hard to spend. Time clock was snailing Out of the day and the sun got hung up in mid air. Wind stopped on the surface of water and the shadows declined to shrink. She wished time was a horse with a tail on the forehead and she would pull it from its tail. She wished time was a dry leaf and she would blow it in the windstorm(风暴)of her heart. She wished time was a boat and she would sail it in the river of her eyes. But today, time had turn into a teaser(戏弄者).She wanted the time to fly and it was crawling. She tried to make her self busy in house chores but her eyes quit supporting her hands as they were still looking at the sun. And the sun also kept glaring at her all the day. Finally the sun lost the battle and started going down. From the rim of the roof, it skidded to the window.

No one in the family felt any change in her. Mike had to go to meet a client and was quite busy looking at himself and the kids were too involved in watching the TV. It was an hour to sunset and she was ready, wearing her best dress and wrapped in her favorite fragrance. She looked several years younger and brought back a charming(迷人的)smile onto her lips.

“Where are you going, dear?” Her preparation couldn't wage enough resistance against Mike’s curiosity.

“Aa, well, actually I thought L would go for some shopping(买东西)”,she hardly uttered.

“Mom! I would go with you.” Nicole yelled as the idea of going out had removed her attention from the TV. The rest were so absorbed that they didn’t even hear the conversation.

“Yeah dear, why don’t you take Nicole with you, she could be helpful.”

Tanya didn’t feel comfortable having a company at that time but she didn’t want to change Mike’s curiosity into suspicion so she said OK.

All the way to the City Center, Nicole kept telling her of all the stuff her friends had and what she wanted to buy in response. Tanya wasn’t listening. She was just nodding her head in approval of whatever Nicole said. She couldn’t possibly have said a word. Her heart was rumbling(发出隆隆声)like a volcano, hitting the rib cage(胸腔)trying to get out to take a look at its long lost love.

The sun was hurrying down now. She was afraid of getting late so she speeded up a little.

“Mom! Aren’t we supposed to go to the City Center?” Nicole asked seeing her turning to a different street.

“Yes dear but I have to take care of something important before we go shopping, all right?” She said.

“All right.” It was OK for Nicole as long as it didn’t alter their shopping plan.

The bridge was getting closer and so was logic. Sanity(理智)had started penetrating her enthusiasm. The question of “how should I do it?” turned into “why should I do it?” The eclipse of her memories had started declining. She could see the bridge now. She stopped the car a hundred yards away from the bridge.

“Honey! You stay in the car, I’11 be back in a few minutes.” She said to Nicole without a slight touch of emotions. She didn’t wait for her answer, stepped out of the car in a mechanical way and started walking towards the bridge.

Larry was standing on the corner of the bridge, with his back to her. He was looking down the bridge into the running water. She walked for a few yards and then stopped. Larry turned his face towards her. Age seemed to have worn him out. He looked tired as if he had traveled a huge span of years. His presence sent no waves of fresh air to clean her heart from the mist of dissatisfaction. He disappointed her again. She hoped to find a ray of hope and he damped down her hope. She looked back towards the car and her daughter. “I have lost too much。I don’t want to lose my ten years.” She decided and turned back. Larry ran after her but she had reached her car. Larry called her with a passionate cry, “Tanya!” She opened the door and sat in. Larry stopped abruptly with shock in his eyes. Tanya turned the ear back.

“You are my wish, Tanya!” Larry murmured. She stepped on the car. Larry saw her going into the sunset.

“Who was he, mommy?”Nicole couldn’t catch any idea out of it.

“He was a nobody, my dear.”

Tanya kept driving into the sunset.

Unit 4 Big Tom

大个子汤姆

我至今怀念与同事大个子汤姆一起的时光，他身体强壮却从不盛气凌人，有时候冒出的奇特想法让人莫名其妙却又无法拒绝。然而，一次随意的决定使他遭受了生命危险……

Of all the males in our company’s dormitory, I felt the most affection for Tom. He was a genius, I thought, but the other guys took him for a nut. He came from far away, and at first had a strong Spanish accent. Now, after a year with the company, he spoke English very well. But his English accent had an exaggerated precision that the other guys didn’t like. In the crude environment of the dormitory, Tom’s accent seemed artificial. But he was a big man, a giant, and strong as an ox, and the others feared him and left him alone.

I on the other hand had a weak constitution. I couldn’t digest any real food and lived on little more than coffee. My arms and legs were as thin as stems. And what work did I do there, you may well ask. I was chief garbage man for the dormitory.

Our company had a big project to build a reinforced concrete reservoir out in a suburb surrounded by hills. At night a portion of the project was closed to us by means of a big square gate made of brass. One cold evening I was depositing the garbage from supper behind our dormitory when I saw a torch and the shape of a man passing through the grass gate. I walked over.

“I knew it was you,” I said to Tom.

“It’s open,” he said. “Shall we go in?”

“Don’t you know we shouldn’t?” I said. “You still haven’t adjusted to the company.”

“Adjust?” he said. “I’d rather quit. Come. What are you afraid of? Don’t you want to investigate this portion?” He knew I did. Already it seemed inevitable that I would to with him. I only feared that the torch would be noticeable on the TV monitor of the chief watchman.

“Turn off the torch,” I said, and we walked through the brass square gate. Tom and I penetrated all the way to the crane, and no watchman had yet pursued us. This giant crane was used for moving and placing the reinforced concrete blocks. In the dark we recognized it by its shape—an immense pillar of zigzag rods. At the top of it, we knew, at the peak, would be the flag. And far over our heads, up in the dark sky, would be the crane’s giant arm. On the arm was the banner that we saw everyday, with the letters ABC, the initial letters of our company’s name. We had ABC written on our shirts, too, and on the chairs and beds with which our dormitory was furnished.

“Let’s go up!” said Tom. I laughed—but Tome had spoken in earnest. Strong as he was, he really had no concept of authority.

“Tom, you are a nut!” I said, wanting to show him that I was reluctant. But in the end he convinced me, and we mounted the ladder to the lift. There were two buttons, a red one and a green one. I pressed the latter, just to see if the lift might be operational. It was. I pressed the red button and stopped it. Tome got in. I pressed the green one again and we rose and rose and finally reached the top. We were at the peak of the pillar, just underneath the flag. Even in the dark we were close enough to see it. Before us the crane’s giant arm led of like a road into the night. Its rods and all zigzag, made me feel that over there would be, I saw, a square gate, some garbage and a dormitory. But no. Off the end of that zigzag road really would be nothing but dark night. The geometry of the crane scared me.

“Let’s walk out to the banner!”

To the banner? Oh, no. This was too much.

“I want to see the ABC!” said Tome. “Come on!” why was his voice so urgent? What did the want that ABC banner for?

“Tom, you are too bold,” I said. “You really have no concept…..” But he had set off. I was very scared, but somehow rose to the challenge and went with him. It became a contest: who would be the first one to touch the long banner? I was halfway along the arm when I heard the water of the reservoir, far underneath us. It was then that I remembered that the chief crane operator, before stopping his work for the day, would always swing the giant arm so that it projected out over the water. Now I was really scared. I held on to a rod. I could feel the coffee I had drunk could and undigested inside me. I did not have Tom’s ox-like constitution.

“Tom!” I said. I did not possess hi boldness, and not his urgency.

“You can’t quit now!” Said Tom. But I could not move. I was trapped.

Tom had reached the banner. He was a dark shape, loosening the knots that held the banner to the rods.

“I possess the ABC!” he said, in that precise English of his. The dark shape on the arm put a thumb up to show me that he had got what he wanted. He put his other hand on what he thought was a rod, but it was the wire that would shock him.

They said later that the nuts on the box that surrounded the wire were loose and had come unscrewed(螺丝钉旋松的). The box had fallen away, and the wire was exposed.

Tome never panicked. He looked at me as if I were far away. But his legs would not hold him up. Wrapped in the banner, he fell, like a baby bird from a nest. It was I who panicked, when I heard him hit and vanish underneath the water of the reservoir. Maybe his fall had not been fatal, but would my beloved Tom now drown? It was possible.

I began to cal for help.

We spent an anxious fortnight in the dormitory. While the others would talk about his vitality(生命力), I stared at jeans and socks of the vanishing nut. The dorm was a different place without his precise English. An X-ray scan had revealed that he would need an operation. And of course the big ox had to recover from the exposure to the cold water. There was a mention in the media of Tom’s shock and fall, and the TV guys were going to come and see what we were doing at the reservoir project, until their investigation was canceled. But the authorities did investigate our company. Their investigation revealed that the square gate had been left open, and the box surrounding the wire had come off.

The company reinforced the square gate with more brass, and put a new box back onto the arm, screwing its nuts tightly. They tightened up the knots of the new banner, and even put anew banner all down the crane’s pillar, this latter one having not only the initials ABC but all the letters of the name of the suburb. And they put a bigger flag on the crane.

The company enhanced the authority of the chief watchman. Now we had to sign in when were came back to the dormitory, and sign out. Even when I took out the garbage in the evening, I had to sign in and out! Besides, they furnish their chief garbage man with a torch in case I should see any shapes of people.



你的资料很不错，就是把帖子分开发了。我给你合并了一下这样也方便大家查看。谢谢你的分享啊！——蝴蝶~

[ 本帖最后由 hope.27 于 2008-5-31 21:38 编辑 ]

Unit 5 Jason and Jeff

父子情深

生命是最令人留恋的，同样，热爱生命的人是最值得纪念的。杰夫和詹森父子俩的感情令人感动，而詹森的生命活力也令人赞叹……

The colorful falling leaves rustle(发出沙沙声)through the trees on this brisk October morning in 1990.Jason and his sister Joanna get into the car and drive to school. Jason is driving this morning. He has just received his permit and is very anxious to start driving on his own. His sister Joanna is one year older than him and is showing him the specific points of driving, as if in a workshop. Today, she decides that he should drive to school. He takes the wheel and proceeds slowly down the back roads to Hill High School. These are backcountry(边远地区)roads and the twists cause Jason to drive slowly and cautiously(慎重地).He takes each turn with a bit of bravado(虚张声势)and his sister teases him that he is becoming a “coward” and tells him to speed up a bit. They will be late for school if he doesn’t step on it! He presses the gas pedal down and accelerates but finds it difficult to tame the steering wheel of the mobile locomotive. His sister tells him to watch the road attentively, but he turns to tell her a witty(机智的)remake and doesn’t see the embankment(路基)ahead of him. Just a second of distraction(分心)rotating the wheel, he sending the car down to the embankment, and the car roils over and over and hits a tree. Jason’s head hits the wind shield and he is trapped between that and the steering wheel. He can’t breathe and is losing consciousness(意识).Joanna tries desperately to free him, but is unable(不能的)to. She does the only thing possible—that is to escape out of the open window and find help… fast!

Ambulances arrive in a few minutes but Jason is unconscious. They have to extricate(救出)him with the “Jaws of Life”(救生颚(商标名)).He is taken to the hospital and for three days he lies between life and death. He is breathing only with the assistance of a respirator(呼吸器).That has limited his brain activity. The doctors take Jeff aside and notify him that Jason has extensive brain damage and that there is no real hope that Jason would be normal again. Jeff must make a decision whether to turn off the respirator and let Jason die in peace. He thinks that it’s the best decision but it is also the most painful one he has ever made in his life.

Jason and Jeff shared a durable bond. They did everything together from the time he was born. When they had a free moment, they would be golfing, skiing, playing badminton. They formed a bond of love that remains even beyond the boundaries of life and death. It is an extraordinary relationship between father and son.

Jason lived only sixteen years but he did so much in his short time on Earth. He was very academic, a musician, an athlete, a golf fanatic, liked archeology(考古学)and was a lover of life. He had many, many friends and thirsted for living, which was quite unlike anyone I had witnessed. He had the kind of boyish charm and he lit up a room when he entered it. He had a beautiful: smile and kind words for everyone. I have never seen him get angry but he was always cheerful and intelligent. I was Jason’s godmother(教母)and when he was baptized(受洗礼)in 1974,he had the coolest priest. The priest had long hair and sandals. I still smile when I think about that priest. Jason cried when I held him for the blessing(祈祷)of the water but not for very long. The ceremony only took a few moments, but looking down at Jason, I knew then, that this was indeed a special child. It turned out my impressions were correct.

Jeff was an enthusiastic, devoted and a superb father to Jason and Joanna. He made sure that he spent a lot of time with his children. Time seemed to be of the utmost importance to him as well as having fun. He always enjoyed life and was a bit of a risk taker. Golf was a pastime that Jason and Jeff shared. It was almost religions. They would even attempt to golf when there was accumulation of snow on the golf course. Jason would just put his gloves on and laugh. “I must golf!” he would say, “I love it!”

One year earlier, Jason was pursuing another kind of sports: Skiing. He liked the skiing attitude. A few of his friends drove up to Sugarloaf Mountain and skied for the whole day. You know, Sugarloaf has a wonderful mountain slope for skiing. Jason spent the day back and forth along the mountain skiing trails for many runs. Once sunset was illuminating the snow and there was a group of trees ahead. The sun blinded him for a second and he tried to avoid the trees but ran into. The ski pole plunged right into his head and fractured his skull. There was a gush of blood on his head but Jason did his best to slide down the mountain. He drove himself to the emergency room, where the doctors scratch their heads wondering how he was injured. But he was lucky to be alive. A few days later, Jason was back on the ski slopes like nothing happened at all. He was just that kind of young man. He overcame the misfortune and lived for exactly one extra year. Jeff told this story at Jason’s funeral. His eyes filled up with tears of love every time he mentioned Jason’s name.

Jason’s bedroom is a testimony to his personality and his life. He has a collection of model airplanes. On the piano there is still the music of the song that was Jason’s favorite of his time, “Chariots(战车)of Fire”. Jason was a very outgoing(对人友好的)young man. He was an accomplished student and a sportsman. Jason had lots of merits and had many, many friends who loved him. I loved Jason very much. Jeff and Jason share a bond of affection that defies death.

Today, Jeff’s home is open to anyone who has a thirst for living. He loves to have fun. He isn’t the one to sit still and let life pass him by. He wants to help young people develop their potentials. He is a member of a mutual aid association. He set up a college fund for the study of music and it would be available to any eligible student who shares Jason’s philosophy of being outgoing and hardworking. It is called the Jason Music Scholarship Fund. It is his way of carrying on Jason’s musical dreams. Now Jason rests by a beautiful river in a bed of roses. Jeff visits him every week, along with his wife.

Unit 6 A Woman\'s Distress

一个女人的苦恼

一个孤独的女人，同样也是一个情感丰富的女人，她在周末的空闲里会做些什么呢？在众多的选择中．詹却选择了独自守在郊区的木屋里用写作的形式来发泄自己的情感。写作虽然不是她的专业，却帮助她体验成就感，帮助她从生命中曾经忍受的痛苦中摆脱出来……

The morning was moist, and the fog had set in last evening and still masked over the shabby cabin hidden deep within the Turtle Mountains. She shivered as she stepped bare foot onto unfinished slabs that held her deck together. She had purchased the slabs from the Hillbilly Board Store.

Her white sleeping gown hung below her knees with just a white cotton lace. Her soft hair was loosely(宽松地)tied back with a piece of purple ribbon softly and gloriously falling out the sides and touching her cheeks of pale skin.

Jen was so glad to be out of the city for a few days. This was her weekend retreat. She loved the cabin. and it gave her confidence and peace and complacency(满足)in herself. Jen worked everyday in an attorney’s office as a consultant. She handled stacks of legal documents daily. So when the weekend and holidays came around she would head for her cabin. Her cabin was thirty-seven miles from the city. It was excluded from other cabins at the lake. She liked it that way.

Jen had a secret, a secret she never told anyone: she was an amateur writer. She had a love for writing. Her writing is comprised by essays, fables, poems, and true stories about people she had come to know. Writing compositions about her childhood she could recall or anything that: kept her interest. Jen never told anyone about her love for writing. She always felt people would consider her as a bit crazy. With so many activities to do on weekends, why would she choose to sit and write?

The cabin was perfect: the breeze was fragrant and she could hear frogs croak(咕咕叫)from time to time. She would sit with her pen in hand and her spiral tablets(活页簿)and would write whatever came to her mind. Sometimes her novels and stories would dominate her and make her cry so hard that she would have to put her writing down and ask herself why she was doing this.

She would write a song, then hum it-and sing it to herself until she believed it was a real song, real like the songs on the radio or television or even imagined some famous singer singing her song.

From her standpoint, writing gave her a feeling of complete satisfaction with herself. It’s not her expertise but it helped her to experience successes and overcome the pain she had endured throughout her lifetime. It helped her to articulate the feelings deep in her heart. It helped her to bring imaginary people and places to reality in her mind. It was a freedom no one ever knew. Her writing was her true complement and soul mate that she could trust.

Jen recently has purchased a computer and took an oath to herself that she would compile her writings and put them into the computer just to have for herself. It was an undertaking which would take a while but having her writings organized for the first time would be great.

It was going to be a dreary(阴沉的)weekend, but Jen didn’t mind. She didn’t plan on spending it outside anyway. For her, it was a stressful weekend. She had too many tasks to complete and the hours went away too fast for her when she was not at work.

Stretching her arms above her head, sticking out her chin and yawning as if it were a sign of freedom, Jen stretched every muscle in her body. “Good morning, world”, she yelled out as she turned to go into her cabin.

The cabin was small in dimension, having four rooms to be exact, but it was all Jen needed. Her living room and kitchen were combined in one large room only the kitchen table separating them. The bedroom was direct opposite the living-room and the bathroom facing the kitchen. The backside of the cabin was an enclosed porch that was screened to enjoy a fresh breeze in the warm evenings and yet keep the irritating bugs away.

Jen poured herself a glass of brandy, sat at her kitchen table and stared into space. Words were running through her mind, words of peace, words of beauty and poetry to relax by.

She picked UD her Den and started to write.

Feeling like rose petals(花瓣)softened by the morning dew,

Sweet scent fills the soul when I think of you.

The way you hold me when I adz lonely and down

Like drops of water running through a pebbled brook.

And the laughter in your eyes every time I look,

Like soft rain falling, I have loved you from the start.

I know you can never show your love for me.

Your life has been drafted and she is yours forever.

But darling I need you to understand 1 will always love you.

I\'ll be here when you need me even if it\'s for an hour or two.

I will never love another and 1 will die with you in my heart.

Forbidden as it may be, I have loved you from the start.

She put the pen down on the table thereafter as she could feel her eyes filling up with mist. She began to sob. Damn him, why did he do this to me, why did I torture myself. I knew he was a married man, I always knew it and yet I let myself fall in love with him.

Jen wiped the tears that were streaming down her cheeks, and she knew she had to get on with her lire.

The weekend went fast, Jen had entered over one hundred of her poems on the computer and had written a few new ones too. She cried a lot of tears and yet had a few good laughs as she was reading what she had written. She always enjoyed going back and reading her previous writings. Sometimes she had even forgotten she had written some of them.

As Jen locked the cabin door, she slowly walked to her car, knowing it would be another week before she could return. She loved the cabin and her writing. After all it was all she had right now as she was trying her best not to break up her best friend’s marriage.

Unit 7 On Duty

值勤

一个年轻士兵，一个怀孕女人，一个奇特的场景。没人能够领会他们当时真正的心理，但只需领会一个人生命中总会偶尔被他人感动，而自己也可能在无意中感动别人，就足够了……

The young soldier, stationed on guard at a foreign city street corner, sheltered himself from the biting late evening wind by standing back against the lee(背风的)side of a small, one storey building, occasionally peering around to view the large crowd that had gathered on the main street.

He didn’t know why the people were there, nor did he care; after all, it wasn’t his country, and none of his concern. He had been in the Army for only six months, enlisting on the same day when he had turned eighteen, and he didn’t understand the local language or any of the country’s dialects. He could speak only a few words and phrases, just enough for him to occasionally purchase some of the local food and beverages.

The commander had told him to watch the assembly, and if they began to get rowdy(粗暴的)and appear to get out of control, he should immediately inform his partner, now stationed across the street, for reinforcements, garrisoned(驻守)just two blocks away. Looking at the disorder on the street, he thought, it must be some kind of protest for some radical cause or other.

He also thought about home, half a world away, and of a girl named Lisa, whom he planned to marry during his next leave. Six more months and he would be a married man. The thought made him smile.

Suddenly, about a block up the street, the crowd emitted up a loud roar, awakening the young soldier from his marital daydream. Back into reality, he quickly scanned the area, noticing that many of the people were pointing towards a woman in the middle of the street, coming from the darkness, like an aerial statue floating above the crowd. He saw a bearded man ahead of the woman, looking as if he was towing her along. Perhaps the woman sat upon a cart or some other wheeled device, but the soldier couldn’t tell in accuracy because too many people blocked his view. Occasionally, through small gaps between the many bodies in front of him, he could see the woman’s waist, and she appeared to be pregnant.

When the shouting became louder, the young soldier kept a watchful(警惕的)eye on the couple as they drew nearer, and at the same time he tried to guess the crowd’s mood, but he couldn’t find out if it was good or bad. He quickly checked his weapon, just in case he might have to defend himself. Then he turned his attention to a group of five dubious and nasty-looking young men standing nearby, ones that he had seen drinking liquor earlier in the evening. He was watching them carefully to make sure they didn’t throw anything handy that might cause harm to the passing couple. Soon, the man and woman came directly in front of the young soldier and the five men, but instead of causing trouble, the drunken five began to wave their arms over their heads and cheer.

Noticing the cheers, the woman turned her head and looked directly at the five men for an instant, then her gaze quickly shifted to the young soldier. Although she smiled when she nodded her head at him, the soldier could sense a deep pain in the woman’s eyes. Fascinated by what he saw, he continued to stare at the woman, his eyes locked onto hers. He couldn’t tear his gaze away. Suddenly, a feeling of solemnity seeped(渗入)into the core of him like a wave of warm water, something that he had never experienced before. A moment later the woman broke the eye contact, and then she and her male companion disappeared, melting into the crowd and proceeding down the street towards one of the local inns.

After a short while, the crowd became quiet and began to disperse.

Within fifteen minutes the young soldier stood sober alone, looking up and down an empty street. A moment later, he noticed three well-dressed men coming out of the darkness, traveling from the same direction as the bearded man and pregnant woman, heading directly towards him. At that same instant he heard his commander’s voice behind him, “soldier, you’re relieved of your duty here. Fall in.”

Marching back to the barracks(军营)in formation with the rest of the sentinels(哨兵),the young soldier looked up at the clear night sky, wondering if the woman with the mournful eyes and peaceful smile had noticed the extremely bright stars overhead.

Unit 8 The Moon Princess

月亮公主

历来，地球上的王国战争总是不断，而人民备受其害。除了作战，他们还要在平时缴纳沉重的赋税，否则就要人头落地。作为善良象征的月亮公主这次能救苍生于水深火热吗？

A mythical(神话的,神话般的)music echoed over the tall buildings, floating toward the heavens through clusters of stars and gently making a light rain sprinkle over the forehead of the Moon Princess. She slept on a couch of cloud and on a pillow of fur, her pitch-black hair dazzling on the pure white of her bed; her six male servants knelt at the foot of her and waited. She stirred, her white suit shimmering with diamonds and crystals as the moon cast its brilliant rays over her slender body, and her deep blue eyes opened. Her servants bowed down in piety(虔诚)and offered her six black boxes, each containing a jewel. The Princess looked quickly over them and chose a jewel, then flung it into the orbit where it became a falling star that she hoped people would see so they could pray on it. She stood up and quivered slightly, still recovering from her long sleep and her devout(虔敬的)servants rushed shortly to hold her tap. The Princess had been sleeping for a hundred solar calendar years, a punishment from a powerful and ambitious Emperor on earth because she had resolved a conflict between his people and another tribe and had been hated for it. She slowly walked over the nickel-plating cube boxes that were laid out for her to make a bridge toward the Moon. She stepped onto its cool surface and toward her throne, one made of silver encrusted with stars that could no longer hold themselves in the sky.

The Princess sat down and turned to her servants who absently lay at her feet. She gestured for them to stand up. “Tell me,” she said, “tell me about the world now; are there still wars?” Her servants nodded sadly. One stepped forward, his blonde hair brushing against his cheek and he knelt at his Princess’s feet. “My dear lady”, he spoke sadly yet his voice hinted a warning(警告), “as you slept, the Emperor passed away and his son Calaf was his successor and he is even more blood-thirsty than his father. We all hate him.” The Princess rose to her feet.

“Then I must stop him。I cannot stand to see innocent people killed in the name of an Emperor. Are they still fighting with the neighboring tribe?” The man nodded. “Then once again I must try to stop this mischief. I do not care what happens to me as long as they stop this nonsense.” She walked swiftly across the cold surface of the moon and looked toward the earth. “Fetch my cloak,” she commanded, “I will go down now to them and negotiate with this man.” Without saying anything her servants fetched a white silk cloak and wrapped it round her shoulders. “Good luck,” they told her in a neutral tone. The princess jumped and floated gently from the moon to earth below.

Emperor Calaf sat on a gold throne with velvet cushions at his back. He lived in abundance. He had everything no one could ever want and he boasted about it, but he was not satisfied with it. He wanted more and he didn’t care how he got anything as long as it pleased him. He oppressed the workers and raised taxes so arbitrarily(任意地)that people in poverty struggled to pay them. He looked out of the temple’s window. The royal court doors burst open and two muscular guards hurled in a terrified man who cowered(畏缩)at the wicked Emperor’s feet. This was what Calaf had been waiting for. This man couldn’t pay his taxes so he would be sentenced to death. The man said nothing, either too scared to speak or knew nothing better than to be silent. The Emperor smiled evilly(邪恶地)and kicked the man in the face so he fell back into the guards.“Take him and execute him. I want it in public so all those other fools can see what happens if you don’t pay up on time.”The guards bowed from the waist and dragged the man away. Calaf got up and for an Emperor he was more like a celebrity, very slim and good-looking. He walked down a corridor after the guards, wanting to see this death. It was fun for him to listen to the man’s scream as his loyal executioner(刽子手)either slitted his throat or beheaded(斩首)him on a rack. He turned left from where the guards went out and onto a balcony, which had a better view there. The crowds called out the executioner’s name over and over, but Calaf didn’t know why they were so excited that they were acting as if this were an enemy being put into death.

One woman, however, caught his attention. She wasn’t from around here and that fascinated Calaf because he had never known anyone from other towns came here. Her beauty was perfect and she seemed disgusted by the crowds and the execution. He watched her run through the cheering crowds as the executioner brought his axe down. “Where’s she gone?” He thought to himself, and then he saw she was heading into his temple. “How dare she!?” Calaf stormed from the balcony into his throne room and found the woman stood by the door. He froze as her gaze pierced him. “Who are you?” He demanded, “and why are you here?”

“I am the Moon Princess and you were born from the blood of many people and from the body of your father, by reputation the most sinful man I have ever known.”Calaf stood in stunned silence, how dared she speak to him like that?“I know you,”he said,“you are the one who tried to stop the war between my tribe and Emperor Timur’s tribe. I thought my father put you to sleep.”

“Alas(唉),he did but 1 only slept for one hundred years. After seventy-five I recalled your father passed away and a child of ten was left in his place, am I right?”

“Yes! I was ten when I took over throne and I am doing what my father wanted, I have destroyed Timur’s tribe and made a lot of money for my kingdom.”The Princess laughed。“making a lot of money for the kingdom? That is a lie。you\'re filling your own pockets with soiled gold and I am going to stop you once and for all!”Now it was Calaf’s turn to laugh,“I would like to see you try, you are nothing but a woman and how would you stand against my great army? Go you stupid creature and don’t return!”The Princess said nothing and went out of the throne room. She would stay here and find out more before taking further action.

Unit 9 Meaning of Culture

文化的意义

人类不仅拥有文字，通过长期积累，人类还形成了丰富多彩的文化。而动物没有语言，其知识局限于本能或直接观察现实所学到的东西……

Man differs from animal species in many ways. Biologically the difference is minor but in mind there are many differences. Man lives in the world of ideas, and acts and reacts in terms of concepts about objects and organizations. The animals live only in the present, they are not possessed of language, and their knowledge is limited to instinct or what they learn by direct and present observations. Their learning does not accumulate except for what they can presently use. Man on the other hand can simultaneously look into the past, present and future. He possesses the capacity to talk, to respond, to represent, to accumulate knowledge and to learn from the stimulus response relationships(刺激反应关系). These peculiar elements in the make-up of man provide a long history and tradition of wisdom, accumulated in various forms of civilization from which culture grows and continues flowing. The fundamentals of culture developed by past generations serve as the foundation stone to the next generation. The new generation further adds to the past accumulation of civilization and culture and enables man to continually assimilate in the stream of culture. Thus man continues to live as a civilized and cultured member of society.

Scientific inventions and discoveries greatly influence cultural variability(变化性，易变性). They affect tradition, customs, beliefs and faiths. They not only affect the present and future ideology(意识形态) of society but also practically bring about changes in artistic products and cultural environment. They quite often undermine the spiritual aspect of cultural life and provide material patterns. Inventions and discoveries bring about changes in the mode of production, art, morals, customs, laws, literature, etc. the changing mode of production affects the culture. Karl Marx held that the culture of capitalist countries differed from that of socialist countries because of the differences in the modes of production.

What does culture do? The first function of culture is to make man a human being. It is culture that regulates his conduct and prepares him for group life. It teaches him the art of living as per the cultural traits of the group. He takes the food, wears the clothes, goes to school, speaks the language and does so many other little things of day-to-day life which are a part of the conventional norms, mores(风俗), laws, customs and morals of the group. The culture of a group plays a major part in the heightening human qualities of its individuals and save them from avoiding participation in the cultural stream.

The culture of the group must give to its individual the capacity to lead a social life as an effective member of society. With the induction of the individual as an effective participant in the social life of the group, one can greatly gain by the utilization of energy of the individual in different constructive activities, which not only provides satisfaction on to the individual but also benefits the group.

The second important role of culture is to keep social relationship intact so that the group as a whole can maintain and develop the values and ideals of the group through the regulation of behaviors of its members and by satisfying their primary needs and objectives in respect of the necessities and luxuries of life. People learn to behave socially in a group because their behavior is subject to approval or disapproval.

The culture of a group provides a number of controls on the irrational conducts for its members. It organizes many cultural aids like schooling, provision of work, outlet to talent, etc. these outlets go to provide rationality and responsibility to the members and integrate them mentally, morally and sentimentally in the group. A culturally advanced group is also capable of providing a coordinated set-up to take the best out of each member and in return give the necessary comfort for personal development, recreation and emotional living. It must also provide other facilities for broadening the vision of the individual members so as to provide necessary motivations for creation in different fields of social activity including production of pieces of art, handicrafts and scientific implements and equipments which the group may need for the satisfaction of its different cultural and material requirements.

The next important function of culture is to instantly provide new interpretation to different situations arising from the traditional cultural elements transmitted to the group. Provision of interpretation to traditional culture helps the reorientation (重新定位)of present and future cultural trends, putting them on the right track. For instance, in the modern era it is the duty of the school and other institution of a group to tell its members that if a cat crosses his way he needs not consider it unfortunate and give up the new projects, which is needed in the modern norms of society.

However, these interpretations based on tradition may differ from culture to culture. Among some cultures the owl may still be regarded as a symbol of bad luck while in others it may be symbol of wisdom.

The principle of cultural diffusion has been advocated by three German scholars. Cultural diffusion is the process by which the cultural trades of one group of society are spread directly or indirectly to other societies. It is historically established that some societies have served as centers of cultural unification. After the birth of Christ was born a cultural center, from where many cultural trades in the field of art and political organization got diffused to the northwestern Europe and to the east up to India. Subsequently Rome(罗马)became a great cultural center from where Roman law spread in most countries of Europe. In ancient time India was the cultural center from where many cultural trade spread eastward up to Indonesia(印度尼西亚) and passed through the fourteenth century. European culture became the dominant element in Asia and Africa and even America. At present the United States and Russia are exporting their respective cultures to different countries.

Several factors influence the diffusion of culture. The foremost is the capacity of the cultural center to inspire other countries to import the culture. The most important vehicle of cultural diffusion is mass communication, tourism, and exchange of educational and cultural delegations and teams, literature, films, etc. Obstruction to cultural diffusion may sometimes arise from the refusal of a group to borrow or import from the other group. Such a group tends to become an island of local culture untouched by the culturally developed countries. Sometimes a cultural island may exist within a larger cultural island. For example, in India the caste(印度的世袭等级)system that has separated Brahmins(印度的婆罗门阶级)from the other social groups for many generations on supposed biological superiority may reject a foreign cultural form, as they fear its impact on the prevailing moral norms and social values. It is for this reason that cultural centers of new values find it more expeditious to invade foreign cultures through such means as the mass media. This process, although indirect and slow, has in due course a lasting impact as it appeals to the coming generations of the foreign countries which are still not fully socialized to the local cultures. For example, the young age groups in India were subjected to cultural influence of the Beatles(披头士乐队，甲壳虫乐队) for quite a long time.

Unit 10 Two Strangers

两个陌生人

有一种真情，直到老了才能体会：有一种眷恋，想来平凡但又真切。谁说陌生人眼里只有陌生？只要用心体会，人与人的沟通就会更加顺畅……

Not that I would have cared. No, it is not the reason why I stopped. He gave a faint sigh, like the sigh of one who has a thousand stories to tell but only a moment left in one\'s life.

In fact it was the sound of a piece of metal hitting the pavement that made me turn around. I had already passed the man, walking promptly as I always do. I had all the time in the world that evening, and I had nowhere to go--I just took a walk along the street.

But as I tried to draw out my keys from the pocket of my brown leather jacket, a small coin fell on the ground making that clinking(叮当响的) noise. Why would I pull out the keys from the pocket here, on the street, kilometers away from any door which the keys could open? It was the sense of security: wishing to be sure that everything is completely in my control.

Yes, I had heard the sound right: there was a ten-cent coin lying on the ground beside an old man, a stranger to me, and seemingly(看来) a stranger to all the people who passed him on the pavement that afternoon. It was spring then; the first warm and sunny evenings of the year were at hand. The day was all too beautiful to be wasted in talking to a complete stranger, who was not even handsome or beautiful or good-looking, and listening to the obscure groans he uttered. Why should I care what he was trying to say, what kind of a burden he might have on his heart?

But I did pick up the coin from the ground, and put it into the pocket of my fashionable leather jacket. \"Fashionable\", that\'s what they said in the advertisements of the clothing company. Latest designs, latest cuts, best colors.

I was better off(富裕的) than the old man, who was sitting on the bench with a newspaper in his hands, murmuring something at me. I guess my income had to be twice more than what he had.And I looked more stylish--younger, healthier, more joyous(高兴的).

The man grabbed the sleeve of my jacket and drew me closer to himself. It was surprising--such sudden demand of personal contact and intimacy which two strangers passing each other on the street did not often develop between themselves. I was curious to know what could come out of such an exceptional situation, I... I forgot to draw myself back, to forcefully free myself of the grip of the man and rush away.

The old man put his newspaper in my hand and said, \"Please read it for me. \" I am not so sure what the exact words were which he uttered from his mouth, but I understood what his meaning to be. The man was not blind; he could see both me and all the people who were walking on the street. But perhaps his sight was too weak for reading the small print of the newspaper.

I looked at the front page; it was dated four days ago. I was disappointed. I didn\'t want to waste a nice day in reading news that were no news any more. Wasn\'t it like throwing one\'s coins away when one could as well buy candies with them, or sitting beside a stranger when one could as well walk free and alone on the street, hurrying somewhere?

\"Read the classified advertisements\", said the old man, whom I scarcely knew at all, but who had courageously(勇敢地) grabbed my sleeve without permission, demanding me to pay attention to him.

I opened the requested page. What then? Should I read all the ads:cats for sale, lost dogs wanted, motor vehicles rented, repaired, washed, and painted?

\"Go to the miscellaneous(综合的，混杂的) section,\" the man pleaded.

Those ads were not so many, only fifteen or twenty. In a monotonous voice I recited announcement after announcement: second-hand bicycles, unused electronic devices, lost wedding ring...

\"There! Read that one again, please,\" said the man, filled with excitement.

\"Mr. Whoever(敬启者，某某先生), the lost wedding ring described in your ad is in my possession. Meet me at railway station next Sunday, at 19 o\'clock. \" I read the announcement once again.

It was Sunday then. And the time was, at the moment when I looked at my watch and announced it to the man who asked about it, 18:27.

The old man wanted to explain something to me. He leaned forward, getting his face close to my ear, and whispered, \"It is the ring of my wife. She lost it a month ago. Oh! What a sorrowful thing it was to find out that the ring which you have worn for five decades cannot be found anywhere. I bought it at Dahlberg\'s jewellery shop. I can still remember how the saleswoman was dressed that morning. In pink, that\'s what it was, in soft, charming pink... But the shop isn\'t there any more. I think they went bankrupt soon after the war. Such a pity, it was a nice little store. And we have our fiftieth anniversary on Sunday. \"

The man didn\'t say more about his wife or the wedding ring; he only brushed his gray hair with a plastic comb.

\"I think I will go and buy a bunch of roses\", the gray-haired gentleman said. \"I\'11 ask the saleswoman to choose beautiful ones. What do you think, will she be dressed in light pink, just like the lady at Dahlberg\'s jewellery shop? But my wife wore a dark dress this morning. That\'s how you can tell that a woman is getting old... They wear darker clothes. No, I will tell my darling to wear something brighter this evening. \"

The man stood up and started to slowly walk toward the direction of the railway station. There was an air of steadfastness(坚定) in him--something that could not be purchased with money, or won in a lottery. Was he stylish? Yes--he was not like the laughing youngsters in the advertisements, but there was something else in him, something more admirable, more valuable.

I still held the newspaper in my hand when the old gentleman disappeared behind the corner of one of the houses. I didn\'t open or read the paper any more, I only sat in silence on the bench. Time was the only thing that moved; everything else stood still.

I leaned back in the bench and stared into the distance. I did not want to walk away, hurrying into a direction chosen at random.

Unit 11 Edward and His Incredible Black Hole

爱德华和他那难以置信的黑洞

小时候，最吸引人的童话故事或者动画片总是与星空和宇宙有关。很多人在童年里都做过飞上太空﹑探索宇宙的梦想。爱德华将梦想付诸实施，虽然其结局是悲惨的，但谁能说，他的科学探索精神不是可贵的？

Edward had a marvelous plan. He was going to create a genuine mini Black Hole, right here on earth.

Edward lived alone in the suburban sprawl(无规则蔓延)of a large city. His father had experimented with inventions in his large steel garage. Because of this, his mother had left home four years ago. He missed his father who had died of a heart attack two summers ago.

Edward worked during the day as an attendant at the City Library where he taught himself technology so that he could understand his father’s notebooks. At home he stumbled around in track-pants(运动裤)and a T-shirt and busily modified his father’s equipment.

Edward put coils of copper tube, large permanent magnets, sheets of aluminum foil, old iron tubes full of silicone(硅树脂) sealant(密封剂) together to construct a two and a half meters high intricate apparatus, putting a copper vertical horn on top. The horn, like the front of a large trumpet, was pointed towards the ceiling.

Today was Edward’s twenty-second birthday, remembered only by the lovely Fiona, the Circulation Librarian. At lunchtime, Fiona had kissed him on the cheek in front of everybody in the tearoom. Edward had flushed crimson(深红色)with embarrassment.

But now was the moment. He climbed the stepladder(活动梯子) and peered into the trumpet. The curved mirror at its base magnified his reflected image and he admired his golden curly hair and his green eyes, but loathed(讨厌) his big ears.

Edward sipped on a glass of cheap soda and whispered, “Black holes are the mysteries of our universe. Everything that enters them never leaves——even light.” He had a collection of hardware items arranged near him so that he could throw them into the Black Hole and watch them disappear. Edward sat at the computer controls for the Black Hole Generator.

“That’s one small step for a man…” Edward intoned(拖长音) and double-clicked on the start icon. There was a loud vibrating noise and a strange glaring effect in the horn. Edward didn’t realize that a simple software mistake had reversed the polarity(极性) of his black hold generator. Yes, he could see that the interior of the horn was indeed the deepest, blackest thing that he had ever seen, but within the blackness he could soon make out sparkling points of every color imaginable.

“Stars?” he thought just before he died. Within a few seconds, around a hundred million colorful ballpoint pens shot out of the horn, bounced off the roof and filled up the garage, spearing poor Edward to death. As every lost ballpoint pen in the world poured out of the black hole, the pressure blew the top off the garage and the mountain of pens continued to grow.

Soon every lost sock in the world flew into the air from the trumpet, and covered the mountain of pens. Then a great number of shopping lists fluttered into the air, followed by an emission of lottery tickets, and train, tram, bus and concert tickets. This was followed by every letter, telegram and E-mail that had never arrived.

Edward’s garage then collapsed as millions of metal keys shot out of the horn and rained down---lost front door keys, car keys and locker keys. The overflow continued as sewing needles, cuff(袖口) links, pencil sharpeners, razors and lost passports, followed by countless of pins.

Can openers, bottle openers and corkscrews(开塞钻) were followed by sink plugs and remote controls. As these flooded over the local community, they were covered by clothes pegs(衣夹), the caps of toothpaste tubes and a flow of overdue(过期的) library books.

A veritable(真正的) mountain of lost-receipts needed by the taxman was followed by every lost screw nut from a world of car engines, household appliances and technical instruments.

As the city sagged(下陷) beneath the weight of all these lost things, millions of credit cards fluttered into the air and rained down.

Edward would have been amazed, except that he was long dead.

Finally, just before the black hole generator disappeared in a puff of smoke, every lost love in the history of the world was expelled into the air and rained down in an overflow of desolation.

Unit 12 Killing Time

生死时刻

我是一名退役的战士，有一次在银行里成功地制止了一次抢劫和劫持人质案。在那个生死时刻……

This was a common place for me but today I discerned there was something wrong when I turned around. Wrong means not right. There were two men in the bank now, a big guy just inside the door and a smaller one more like a skeleton in the middle of the floor.

Big guy was leafing through the leaflets on the counter, but his eyes were on the door and the eyes of the small guy never stopped moving and were scouting the scope and layout of the room, his head moved like that of a tennis fan sitting at the net.

Small guy was making a thing of deciding which queue to join, but it was the way he stood that held my attention. His left arm was tight against his body and he was wearing a long coat. Nothing wrong with that, it was winter.

Still wrong. It\'s transparent to me that he was carrying a weapon. On closer observation, big guy was likewise sort of leaning against the counter and in an instant I knew that he was using his weight to jam his gun between him and the counter. A robbery was about to happen.

If I attacked the small guy, I\'d be easily picked off by the big guy as I struggled to get small guy\'s gun. If I walked casually by, and seized the big guy, the small guy would shoot the customers around him and take some nice-looking teller(银行出纳) as a hostage.

The situation was urgent. It was better to leave and call for immediate assistance. Assistance? I wasn\'t a soldier any more. I had been retired. Better to call the police, as normal people do. I could be anonymous then.

As I walked by, the small guy started to move. He swung back his coat and revealed a pistol and started to yell, \"Attention, everyb--!\" The small guy was too busy to finish the second word.In the instant an idea flashed into my mind,\"why the big coat for such a small gun\", then thought \"winter\" again.

Fortunately for me, it was not I that stopped him but a keen security guard who\'d obviously seen the same signs I had. Fortunate for me, but unfortunate for the security-man. He hadn\'t noted that the big guy was an accomplice(同伙). After an interval of a few seconds,he fired a pistol at the back of the guard\'s head as he walked over to check on the dead small guy. He fell on the body of the small guy, blood streamed down from his wound.

Big guy stood there, momentarily as if deciding what to do. His eyes were a little wild but not scared. I thought again about rushing at him, but the distance was too great. Better to wait. All around me, people were screaming and moaning in shock and some people were already lying on the ground, anticipating the big guy\'s next instruction. The screaming did not bother him, which was both good and bad. It was good because the cool gunman was unlikely to shoot unnecessarily and bad because he would shoot without pausing if the situation required it.

It seemed there was chaos in the place. The only ones standing silent were him and me. For a moment, our eyes met and gazed at each other. Did he know me? How could he? The sound of the approaching alarms broke our gaze and the big guy calmly and loudly instructed everybody to lie on the floor. I did as he bade, but taking as many steps forward as I dared before lying down. I was no more than five yards from him.

He gave an imperative order, \"If everybody does what I say, no one will get hurt. This is just a robbery gone wrong and I want to use you good people as hostages so that I can get away!\" He didn\'t have to say any more than that. We\'d all seen in perspective what had happened and knew he could kill some of us. The \"hostage\" in his short speech made it clear that he was saying he would threaten to kill hostages if his demands were not met.

The police arrived and contact was made straight away. He said that he would kill a hostage every ten minutes until he was given a clear passage to the private airways strip, where a helicopter was to take him to Cuba(古巴). He would bring hostages along with him as insurance against any unpredictable(不可预测的) trouble.

As the first ten-minute deadline approached, the big guy scanned the hostages in front of him.His eyes touched mine, but he moved on, looking for something. \"You! Kid!\" Everybody looked back and saw a boy, about ten years old, cowering behind his mother. \"Get over here! Get over here, NOOOW!\" shouted the big guy, as the boy cowered further.

I could see he would act for the ultimate aim--to kill a kid and to make them know he was serious. I couldn\'t let the tragedy(悲剧) happen. Could I hide and wait and let all this happen and walk away? All my training said I could. \"Bad things will happen around you\", said the Controller.

\"Terrible things. But if it doesn\'t happen to you,it\'s not your liability to stop them. \" I had seen terrible things and walked away. But not today.

\"Take me\", I said, standing up and making another vital step forward. \"Leave the kid and take me\". Everybody looked at me, some of them taking me for a suicidal (自杀的) person and thought it was a movie. This is really happening, their eyes said to me, for God\'s sake,to sit down before he would kill you.

It was too late. “OK, come here by the door and kneel in front of it”. He said this as if he was a surgeon inviting a patient into his surgery. \"Were you in the army?\" He asked casually as I walked towards him. \"No\", I replied. This had to be quick. I would have no chance to seize him when I was kneeling at the front door.

\"You\'re saving me from the trouble\", I said, casually setting his mind at ease so that he needn\'t worry about my last-minute efforts for freedom. If he were wary(警惕的) of me, he would not take his eyes off me. In the instant he turned to walk with me towards the door, I had my arm around his neck. It broke like a toothpick(牙签) and he died instantly.

He didn\'t even get a shot off. It was done at one stroke without noise and he slumped into the floor. I turned around to see people looking at me horrified. I knew then that I had killed him too easily, too quickly.

One of the tellers picked up the phone and spoke to the police. Suddenly the place was overrun(占据) with uniforms. Eventually, we were all shepherded to waiting police cars and moved down-town to the station house.

I was ushered(引导) into an interview room. They showed me the close circuit TV coverage(闭路电视录像) of the incident in the bank and I made a statement corroborating(证实) what had happened. \"You are being charged with murder,\" said the detective whose name I could not remember,\"but this evidence should show that it was self-defense(自卫)\". Well, anyway, I was fighting against almost certain death, and they were the same thing. I didn\'t argue.

\"You served in the military?\" He asked. He was looking at me carefully. I got the impression that the boys(此处引申为警察) in the room had seen the tape and were guessing how I could have overpowered(制服) the big guy so completely. \"No\", I replied, not knowing what to say next. I was good at killing. Could I say that?

\"Chickens,\" I said.

\"What did you say?\"

\"Chickens. I\'ve killed lots of chickens on my farm. When they\'re dying. You get to know where their weak points are. And I\'ve strong hands. \" These hands have ripped open rib cages and pulled out beating hearts, I wanted to say.

I made bail(保释金) of 10 000 and my husband came and collected me. \"Next time you go to town, I\'m going with you\", he said, \"it\'s too dangerous for you to travel alone. \" Yes, it is really too dangerous.

Unit 13 One Evening

一个晚上

世间什么东西最难理解？恐怕是女人的心思。她为什么离开他？她去了哪里？她是个什么样的人?她到底为什么不接受他的表白？谜语太多，可怜的迈克尔猜不出，只能回味往事……

It was freezing cold outside, no pigeons in sight. But Sara insisted on an appointment. They had to meet by the bench in the park. When she said this, she meant the bench where they usually sat and enjoyed the sun in summer, talking about nothing and everything. Michael never complained, and he didn\'t complain about the thick snow, or the fact that the cold wind blew so hard that he hardly could see anything in the background, and the long journey back from London still made him a bit feeble and dizzy. Sara said they had to meet.They had to meet by the bench at exactly seven P.M. She\'s always punctual. When Michael arrived, Sara had already been there, like a ghost.

\"Sara?\" Michael said as strong winds started and blew away the snow, exposing the cement beneath.

With courtesy, she looked up at Michael and smiled. \"Hi!\"

\"What\'s wrong? You said you want to talk about something and it sounded serious.\"

\"Yeah, well... I just want to talk to you. \"

She could talk by the phone, or invited him over to her apartment, or asked to meet in a cafeteria or somewhere. Somewhere more comfortable and warm than standing in the ankle deep snow under the blizzard(大风雪) in a park.

\"Let\'s go to Lizzie\'s. It\'s warmer there. It\'s minus 10 centigrade out here, and I\'m sure we could have some coffee and pudding(布丁) right now\", Michael held out his hand. Usually she would take it and they would walk to Lizzie\'s, which was not too far, and sit there talking when it was too cold to sit in the park. But this time she just shook her head and stayed where she stood.

\"Sara, it\'s freezing cold here. We might catch flu or worse pneumonia. Let\'s go before I froze into a human-icicle(冰柱) and then you have to drag me around. I am heavy you know\", he smiled to her.

\"It won\'t take long\", she said after pausing a little while. Something suddenly made Michael felt that the snowstorm is happening inside him, stopped his pulse and frozen his entire inner organs.

\"Sara?\"

She watched him looking all confused and worried and felt so warm inside. This guy was the only person she should face today. She had to do this. Sooner or later she had to do this. She knew this would hurt him more than she was hurt by it. But this was the only chance. Her only chance to get away from him. Although she knew so well there was no way to get away from something like that. From pain.

The wind grew more fiercely. Michael by now grabbed her by her shoulders and asked her repeatedly what was wrong with her.

As if the cold has numbed her.

\"Do you remember the first time we ever sit in this bench together?\" She asked.

\"Yes. You walked your dog and so did I. And Russel and Biff made friends with each other and so did we. \"

Actually Michael had seen her several times before. He was new in the block, just moved in from his old apartment up north. He came to the park in company with Biff and walked the pet every afternoon, hoping he would meet the girl with vivid eyes.

Sara smiled. Her big eyes looked sad. Michael was getting frustrated.

\"Did I do something to make you upset? Did anyone do something that made you upset? Are you OK? What\'s wrong, Sara? Tell me and let me help you. \"

How could she tell him the truth? She just stood there in the freezing cold and scared Michael to death. Something was wrong. She had been so careful not to let Michael knew too much. Not to let him went too deep inside her life and heart. They said he was all right so she could be friend with him. They had warned her that she could not have any attachment to this man. Beware of this man. It was too dangerous. He was innocent.

\"So am I!\"she protested at the time. And she was wrong, and she was right. She knew they were right too. She said to herself that she could stop it anytime she wanted to. She knew she was wrong about this. Who can stop love?

\"I like Lizzie\'s apartment\", she said,looking down her feet.

\"Then let\'s go there. Much better there than here. \"

\"I can\'t !\"

For several silent seconds she stared deep into his eyes, the window of his soul, searching for a reason to hate this man. There was nothing there but deep worries.

\"You emitted light, Michael\", she whispered.

\"What?\"

\"Knowing you is probably the best thing that could happen to me in the past couple of years. Or for the years to come. \"

Suddenly his throat went dry. They never officially dated and he never exactly told her he loved her. Maybe she got tired with all of the uncertainties. Women expected their boyfriends to verbalize tenderness all the time. This seemed like a good time. Maybe he should tell her he loves her. And then maybe she wouldn\'t leave him.

\"Sara, I love you!\"

She looked startled to his declaration. Michael could swear she looked disappointed. Or maybe angry? It was very cold outside and the snow blurred(使…变模糊) his vision. Did she cry? Perhaps. He had to say it. If it could make her stay, then why in hell not?

\"Thank you\",that was all she said to it. His heart sank.

All plausible outcomes went through his head. What could I do to make her stay? Should I beg? Should I get on my knees and beg her to stay? Should I cry in front of her? Oh God, please...

\"I don\'t expect you to understand anything, Michael. I can\'t even ask you to forgive me for what happened. I\'m sorry. \"

\"No. No, I don\'t understand, and that\'s why you have to explain to me. What happened Sara? What is going on? Something happened while I\'m away, that\'s for sure. Did I do something wrong? Tell me and maybe I can make up for it. \"

Sara tried so hard not to cry. At the corner she could see the woman wearing a black coat looking at her watch. She was standing there all the time while Sara talked to Michael. She had grown impatient.

\"Please, Michael\", she whispered slowly and hugged the bewildered man..His scent, his warmth, his deep voice tone while talking to Sara, she would miss all of them.

Michael was unsure how to wrap his arms round her frail figure. Inside, his heart was starting to break to pieces. But he would not give up just yet.

She let go of him and stared at him with some determination in her eyes.

\"I want you to know that I do love you. I hope we will get to meet again, Michael.\"

\"Where are you going?\"

She just smiled to him and walked away. Something just punched Michael right on his chest.He felt like a stone just hit him. The blow didn\'t injure him physically but the damage was indescribable. He stood there paralyzed for some seconds before he could move his legs and started chasing her.

\"Sara !\"

Sara kept on walking to the lady in the black coat. A white car pulled by and she opened the door for Sara.

\"Sara! Wait!\"

But she didn\'t look back. She got in the car and the car drove away. The rear of the car disappeared from his eyesight in the dusk.

Sara\'s apartment was already cleaned empty. They didn\'t let her leave anything behind. Not even a note for Michael. No one knew where she went, or who she was. Nobody knew if she had any relatives who could tell where she was going to, and no one knew more than that she loved dogs and she was a very quiet girl. Sara just disappeared. And only Michael was crazy on his search for clues.

Spring came, and Biff demanded to be taken for a stroll on the park one afternoon. Passing the bench, Michael didn\'t stop. A young couple had occupied the bench now, talking with tins of coffee in their hands. Michael thought it would be nice to stop at Lizzie\'s for some coffee and cherish the old days before going home.

Unit 14 Information Systems Today

今天的信息系统

信息技术对于人类的生活是重要的和不可或缺的。信息的传送、记录或存储和处理是信息的三种基本步骤。科技不断发展，对信息技术的掌握可以使人类的进化更加迅速……

Information technology is important and indispensable to the life of human beings. Trammission, recording or memory and processing of information are three essential process of information.

Virtually, the information technology has been changing everyday. The basic challenge of the coming decade is how to make the already available technologies as useful and friendly to a user as the telephone or television set is to the common man.

Computers are a major segment of the new information technologies. The constant growth of semiconductor technology and the proliferation (增殖) of the semiconductor memory devices has brought possibilities that you use personal computers to do anything you want to,for instance, record a message and phone back an answer.

With the help of satellite communication, the transmission of data has become very fast. The data can be telexed(电传)；the voice over a telephone can be transmitted on local, national and international network. The transmission of images through technology, that\'s via a TV, is again going to be a major challenge, as how to combine all these three components of information technology into one. It will bring about various problems. The first is the privacy that goes with it. For further addition to the impact of communication, one can switch over from voices to images and data, depending on an individual\'s need.

It is major challenge before the society at large and the library professionals as how to compress a library into a computer. Moreover, on the user\'s part it is not easy to sit at a terminal and read. Basically some psychological and social changes especially exert a subtle influence on the minds of the young children, so that they grow up with the habit of reading on a computer screen.

It is also a fact that a large number of computers have been used as sophisticated typewriters. If you ask somebody who is the actual user of the computer, it is probably the secretary. A lot of PCs have dust covers on them and one cannot be sure how frequently they are removed. It is a strange phenomenon that people haven\'t come out of their “hang-ups”. The terminal or keyboard of a personal computer is looked up as an extension of a sophisticated typewriter. Also there is a conventional barrier in sitting and typing out the matter, which needs to be overcome.

That\'s why the advertising expenditures have to be toned down(降低) to a certain level of reality. There is worldwide a competition going on as to how quickly you can gather, dispatch or transmit the information. There has been a tremendous bombardment(爆炸) of information from all sides. As the demand grows from the public to share the information, at the same time every section of the society is demanding more and more its share of message that goes across. Besides, the homes have been invaded by the message of consumerism(消费主义)--information about goods, marketing, politics, etc. The tender minds of children are gradually corroded by all the matter.

It is going to be a long struggle to convert all the paper knowledge into the electronic medium. Moreover, if we want to solve the literacy problem, the computers may help in self-learning. The noble place of a teacher will be taken up by a personal computer, as whatever one will see on the screen will become a reality, why should anyone go to one\'s parents or teachers when the PC can provide answers to all your questions. Already, the latest PC is there in the market in the United States, which can store all full encyclopedias in it, even the whole library.

With the widespread of information, the categorized structure of the organization breaks up.There is no need of various layers of management to perform the varied tasks that are easier to be done by computers. During the last decade there was an open declaration that one person can manage a project or a company. In the 70\'s there was the concept of controlling finance(财务控制). Today, the widespread of information through various media has to be managed.

In the 1940\'s there used to be radio sets that had vacuum tubes, which have been replaced today by the integrated circuit(集成电路). A technological advancement is gauged by the power it gives or the energy it consumes and the cost that is involved. The technology that was prevalent in the 1940\'s used to be about 100 percent more expensive and about 1 000 times energy consuming. Electronics in turn has revolutionized(使…根本改变) the computer industry today.

Today, in the field of digital communication, there is digital transmission, digital switching and signaling that is taking place. The progress of the digital techniques mainly depends on computer\'s development and the progress of digital transmission systems based on it have merged computer and communication.It has made possible the realization of the three basic functions, i.e. , the transmission, memory and processing in a simple form and realization of further advanced and more complicated systems. This progress has given us many useful means to better our social life and welfare.

Unit 15 A Favor at the Gates

天堂门前的恩惠

如果一个孝顺的女儿没有完成父亲的最后一个愿望，父亲就死去了，她会在以后的日子里如何生活？我甚至连母亲都要怨恨，恨她没能给父亲留一点尊严。但她更恨自己的软弱，恨自己当时的不作为，恨自己选择了逃避……

I hate February. Maybe I do misunderstand it but it\'s the most desolate time of a year. White-gray skies and coldness are its only equivalent features. February signifies death. I know this is true because on a cold gray mid-February day, seven years ago, came the news of my father\'s terminal illness.

We had suspected for some time that whatever was wrong with Dad would be something petty and curable. He had always maintained an active life even in his seventies, but this winter had hit him pretty hard. A cough that wouldn\'t go away was followed by episodes of fatigue so severe that he wouldn\'t or couldn\'t look after himself. Eventually he had to be hospitalized and the tests confirmed our worst and ever-present fear--cancer. Though his pension could help cover his prescriptions but the diagnoses came too late for any type of treatment to have effect. There was nothing feasible to do but bring him home and wait for the inevitable outcome.

When Dad first came home there was an air of denial surrounding everyone whom came to visit him. They talked to him as if he would recover soon; wished him well when they departed, and if anyone ever gave him the chance to talk about the finality of his life that I never knew. Good-bye shouldn\'t be so hard to say, but it often is heart-breaking.

February gave way to March and then April came with its vitality and promise of new life. I suppose everyone feels the irony(具有讽刺意味的事) at the times like that. We sit by the side with no option but hopelessly watch the life drain from someone we love while the seasons turn and we can do nothing to stop death from its approaching. As my dad decayed and faded inside the house,the lawn turned green, the pond glowed like porcelain, all the trees leafed to fullness and the tulips(郁金香) sprang forth as though all was exactly as it should be. There is no fairness in destiny.

I often spoke with my mother during the final weeks of dad\'s life. She talked endlessly about the magnitude of her frustration and fatigue. There were times when she angered me with her negative and insensitive(麻木的) comments and there were times when I felt how tired she must be.Mom never said she was afraid to be widowed but at times I could sense how uneasy she was; I was not aware how she might react when the end came. The truth about death was hidden somewhere between our interpretation and what we refuse to admit. I carried the guilt of mutely hoping my dad\'s death would be quickened, thus sparing him and myself the agony of prolonged pain.

Death seems to determine to rip apart any fragile bond that exists between the living and the dying. On the last Sunday I was ever going to see my father, while talking leisurely, he mentioned how much he loved French fried potatoes and how he wished he could have a big plate of them now.Mom overheard his comment and began screaming that how she had cooked everything he had asked for and he didn\'t eat any. She screamed so loud that I was embarrassed for my father and myself.She was like a pirate who left my father shipwrecked. He looked away from my eyes but I saw bitter tears rolling down from the corners of what once were the greenest eyes I\'d ever seen. At that moment I hated my mother. I hated her for making me pity my father. I hated her for being spiteful,though mostly I hated myself. It would have been a simple thing for me to accommodate my dad\'s request of French fried potatoes. I could have jumped right up and told mom I knew how tired she must be and even if dad didn\'t or couldn\'t eat them, I\'d fix them for him. I could have told mom to go sit down and rest. Or I could have told her Dad was just talking about the recipe of food he enjoyed. I could have done a million things different from what I did. Sadly all I did was far from my emotions. As Mom was still yelling and Dad was trying to conceal his hurt, I made some lame excuse for leaving.

During my drive home I thought of how Mom had made my visit with Dad so depressing. The picture of Dad\'s smiling face turning so quickly to one of hurt wouldn\'t leave my mind. Why had she screamed out at him? Dad only wanted some fried potatoes. Mom could have said no or maybe later. On the contrary, she had lashed out at him with such rage that he shrank in fear at her onslaught (冲击), as did I. Why didn\'t I gather an ounce of courage and stand up to Mom? Would it have been so hard for me to intervene? My father was dying and all he had asked for was some French fried potatoes. We were just talking about foods we enjoyed, like prawn(对虾), lobster(龙虾), beef stew with pepper and mushroom soup, etc. The worst criminals condemned to death can request a last meal and get it. Where was the justice in refusing my father a plate of French fried potatoes? I couldn\'t stop the tears as they overflowed from my eyes.

I opened the door to the home I shared with my husband and daughter, hoping to get in the bathroom before they could ask any questions. Luckily my husband was on the telephone and he barely glanced at my way as I came through the kitchen. I splashed cold water on my face and tried my best to conceal the redness the crying had created in my eyes. When I finally opened the door, my husband was standing on the other side, waiting for me to come out. He pulled me gently into his arms and whispered how much he loved me and how sorry he was to have to tell me my father had just passed away.

As my husband drove us back to my parent\'s house, I kept thinking about how I had just left Dad, alive, not more than thirty minutes past. One of the ironies of death is even when you are expecting it, it comes as a surprise.

Seven years have passed since we buried Dad. I\'ve only just begun to forgive Mom for her final outburst(感情等的爆发) during my last talk with him. I\'ve been less forgiving myself. Each day I\'m ridiculed(嘲笑) by my own thoughts. How could I have left Dad disappointed knowing he had a want? What was wrong with me to have not done something? Whenever I\'m at a restaurant and hear children asking their parents for fries to go with their hamburgers, I fight not to interfere. I want to say let them have fries. I\'d offer to pay for them myself, too. But that would call for some kind of explanation and I\'m not ready to share this with strangers.

There will be a time for an explanation when I am visited(遭…的报应) by the only principle of fairness. If those gates of Heaven are really there and a short pause exists while the records are reviewed, I\'ll tell my story then. Before I am judged, I\'ll bargain, would it be too much to ask if I might be awarded with time to prepare a plate of French fried potatoes? And if you could, would you graciously have them delivered to my father? I know he is here and he\'ll know who sent them. If you could allow me this small favor I think I\'ll be all right no matter where I might go from here.

I hate February... it is the most desolate time of a year.

Unit 16 When Shadows Fall

暮色降临时

写作是需要充分的安静的。喜欢安静，又有点怪癖﹑固执的作家埃姆莉太太讨厌无聊声音的烦扰，乐意享受夜间静谧的环境……

Cobwebs(蜘蛛网) hang lazily from the cracked plaster ceilings. Dust has piled thickly on the paper. Books are placed everywhere, on tall shelves and low shelves, in unsteady(不稳定的) stacks on floor, coffee table, lounge and piano, in boxes, cupboards and wardrobes(大衣柜).

A reading lamp casts a single bright circle on the green cloth of the dining table, and a woman\'s head bent low over them. Her hair crinkles(成波浪状) like tarnished(失去光泽的) metal. As she writes, her brown arm moves slowly across the circle of light, the faint scratching of her pen is the only sound in the room.

Loud strikes at the front door shatters(打碎) the calm. The writer sighs, starts to lay down her pen, but with a shake of her head resumes writing. The over-enthusiastic knocking at the door is repeated. The house is vibrated: millions of tiny dust particles shiver and twirl(旋转) chaotically(无秩序地) through the air, fragments of plaster tremble along the cracks, spiders hurry to their corners. She hears footsteps pass the curtained window in front of her, the frail and dusted back gate opens with only a brief creak(吱吱的响声).

Pushing back her chair, she stands rigidly, revealing the red glow of a heater in the dark cave under the table, and walks slowly through the cold kitchen to the back door.

As she opens the back door, she finds there stands a young man on her threshold, who is from the flats across the road. He\'s storing things in her garage.

“Hi, Mrs Embley. I just want to ask if you\'d mind if I put up a few shelves in the shed?”

Shelves... timber... nails... hammering... noise！

“Uh, no, I don\'t think that\'s a good idea: Donald wouldn\'t like it. ”

“Oh, Donald is back, isn\'t he? ”

“Of course. I told you he has just gone up the street. ”

“Yeah, haven\'t seen him, but OK. It doesn\'t matter. See you. ”

“Wait! It really would be best if you didn\'t disturb us in the house. Donald needs peace and quiet for his work, you see. Just come and go to the garage, as you want, no need to ask. A1right? ”

“Fair enough, ” he nods, and disappears down the side path. She shivers a little, glancing briefly at the vaguely familiar wildness of the yard before shutting and bolting the door. Donald used to look after it, but she no longer remembers how long since he went, nowhere he said he was going. Last winter? Or the one before?

A cup of tea, she thinks, then on to that troublesome chapter five. Searching vainly for biscuits, she curses gently. Such a waste of time, shopping. Perhaps she\'ll just go to the petrol station on the corner again；they have a few things, and they certainly have biscuits.

She fetches her coat from the wardrobe. The hat she wears on her head is an old gardening one, but the mirror door, hanging by a hinge, shows only a haggard(憔悴的) and lanky(瘦长的) sight of her figure, and she leaves the house.

Returning ten minutes later with her stopgap (权宜的) shopping, she remembers to clear the mailbox. She skims(快速浏览) through the pile of letters and finds that most are sent to her for manuscripts. These publishers can be so pushy(热心的). She\'ll deal with them later.

Now for chapter five! Tea and biscuits at her hand, the heater at her feet, silence and the night screen like a protective curtain all around her. She turns to the beginning to reread what she has finished and regain the imagined world.

The first paragraph is only a working one, but it has, she feels, a good title to it: When Shadows Fall, by Donald Embley.

Unit 17 Saving the Environment

拯救环境

比起消除真正的污染，当前加强对于环境保护重要性的认识，其意义还要深远得多。我们太晚才认识到，当我们在生产﹑规模﹑速度和发展这些方面取得“成就”的时候，生活条件已大大恶化……

The effort to save the environment derives much of its political popularity(普及)from the impact of immediate personal inconveniences：a sewage(严重的)polluted beach, the smog that leaves one’s eyes watering, the black granules(小颗粒)of soot(煤烟)that drift in through an open window, traffic jams(交通堵塞), noise, the smoking vehicles and industries.

But the significance of the current consciousness for the environment protection goes much, much deeper than nuisance reduction. It is a postponed recognition that as we “succeed” in terms of production, size, speed, growth, quality of life may deteriorate our living conditions disastrously. It is a delayed recognition of our unity with nature, a concern for man himself and his natural environment. It is a delayed awareness that our fate as individuals is in fellowship with our fate as a species and the future of life in this planet.

Precisely because we have recognized late, we must redouble(加倍)our efforts to gain command of the situation, we must take all the means at our disposal—basic and applied research, public education, and, above all, the governmental action.

We could have a productive, prosperous society without destroying the ecological balance of our environment. Why should man create the impropriety(不适当的事物)of material plenty around poisoned air, polluted water and mountains of solid wastes?

Russia is currently concerned with the fight to save Lake Baikal(贝加尔湖), four hundreds miles long and six thousand feet deep. The beautiful, wooded shoreline is being inhabited upon by new industrial plants—and a new generation of Russia conservationists(自然资源保护论者)is raising a challenge, the united states contains less than 6percent of the world’s population—but it consumes 34 percent of the world’s production and brings about much more than 5 percent of the world’s pollution. Each American in his lifetime uses an average of 26 millions gallons of water, 21 000 gallons of gasoline, 10 000 pounds of meat, 28 000 pounds of milk and cream, $ 6 000 worth of clothing and $ 7 000 worth of furniture. Each year, people in the United States discard 7 millions automobiles and 100 millions tires, 20 million tons of paper, 28 billion bottles and 48 billions cans. Just to collect the garbage cost $2.8 billion a year. The United States factories get rid of 165 million tons of solid wastes and 172 million tons of smoke, vehicle emissions and other forms of atmospheric(大气的)pollution. Eighty-three million United States automobiles contribute 60 percent of air pollution in urban districts. Each year, the United States paves over a million acres of field, forests and rural green spaces.

Fortunately, saving the environment has become a popular crusade(圣战)—aided especially by the energy and concern of young people, man is beginning to realize that he must drastically alter his pattern of shortsighted(无远见的)abuse of the natural resources if he wants to survive.

Large firms are moving to compete with the small ones; specialist makers of pollution control equipments have watched their own sales increase tenfold.

We must achieve interaction of popular pressures and enthusiasm, the precise application of sizable(相当大的)funds and technological skills, and the wise action of government at all the levels of our socio-economic system. That means federal, state and local governments should coordinate their efforts to solve the problems.

While polluted air almost never appears on a death certificate, medical research strongly implicates(暗示)it as a contributing cause of many deaths. Polluted air influences health gradually, so its effects are extremely difficult to pinpoint(查明). However, mounting evidence indicates a steady increase in the incidence of such respiratory(呼吸的)diseases as asthma(哮喘), bronchitis(支气管炎),lung cancer, and emphysema(肺气肿). Cities with an abundance of air pollution have the greatest incidence of these diseases.

The number-one cause of atmospheric pollution is the automobile. Some further observation is needed on this subject, but the automobile is indeed a crucial polluter and killer. The accident death rate from automobile is currently in excess of fifty-five thousand people every year. The automobile creates traffic jams in the cities and junkyards(旧汽车丢弃地)in the countryside. Experts say the family car has made possible not only the spread of the suburbs but also the abandonment(废弃)of central cities. The internal combustion engine(内燃机)may well give place to other forms of propulsion(推进). However, research work on the electricity, steam and hybrid gasoline-natural gas powered(油气两用的)automobiles has not proceeded very far. The fact is that no one has yet invented a substitute which has adequate performance, reliability(可靠性),and safety, or which can be produced at a reasonable cost and requires a minimum of maintenance.

We have made progress in cleaning up the atmosphere, in part because the public recognizes the health dangers and is willing to accept the expenditures. But there has little progress, nationally speaking, against noise pollution, because so little is known about the subject.

Noise pollution is, in face, a threat to millions that could be as dangerous as the pollution of the atmosphere. Clinicians(临床医生)believe that prolonged exposure to noise, especially to sharp, sudden, surprise sounds, produces severe involuntary response in the digestive(消化的)nervous systems.

Human ears cannot shut out noise in sleep in the same way eyelids(眼皮)shut out light. The constriction(收缩)of blood vessels by noise pollution can go on all night long. Many people are fatigued by their efforts to remain asleep in the midst of urban noise.

The lowest audible(可听到的)sound is one decibel(分贝)—and louder sounds are measured upward on a logarithmic(对数的)scale. Twenty decibels is ten times 10 decibels, and 80 decibels is a million times louder than 20 decibels—and 30 or so if it is dropped on a wooden library floor. The ordinary conversation level in an average size room runs at approximately 60 decibels. Sounds of 80 decibels or more are uncomfortable to human ears. Decibel levels of 90 or more are estimated by doctors to present a health hazard. Decibel levels of 100 or more are a definite threat to hearing.

Heavy city traffic is measured at 90to 95 decibels, and a common household food blender at 93 decibels. Air hammers(气锤)and air compressors(空气压缩机)along city sidewalks(人行道)erupt in sudden blasts of 95 decibels. This is also the reading, incidentally, of a subway train screaming around a curve. Farm tractors can sound at 98 decibels, roughly the same as a newspaper printing press. Incredible as it may seem, there are many familiar implements of modern life that measure 100 decibels and above. These include loud outboard(舷外的)motors, powering along off-shore(离岸), 102 decibels; textile looms, 106decibels; riveting guns(铆枪), 110 decibels on up, usually way up.

There are psychological effects of noise pollution. Starting sounds contribute to outbursts of anger among normally placid(平静的)people. A dropper toy, a blaring television set, a police siren, a tingling(叮当响的)telephone, a sudden truck noise, might propel a neurotic(神经病患者)to minor violence. As for prolonged, steady sound, men and women exposed to it are more inclined to quarrel or act foolishly.

A British study showed not long ago that people who lived near deafening(震聋)London airport were admitted to mental hospitals at a higher rate than people living in quiet districts in the same part of the country. The noises of our daily life have been blamed variously for the high divorce rate, social conflict, indigestion(消化不良),nervous breakdown(神经失常), high blood pressure, heart failure(心力衰竭), and even insanity(精神错乱). The damage is done deep in the inner ear, near the brain, to the delicate cilia(纤毛)， rows of microscopic, hair like organs capable of responding individually to thousands of frequencies of sound, the first of these tiny organs to be injured by noise are those, which respond to the higher frequencies above the level of speech. But the hearing loss takes place very gradually, and deafness is often not noticed until it is too late to take corrective measures.

In fact, most city dwellers(居民)have “invented” their own methods of withstanding noise pollution. They turn on a low decibel producer—a fan or an air conditioner—to strain out and distill the louder noises and make indoor life more preferable. Some states have passed laws against defective motorcycle mufflers(消声器), against alarms on other than emergency vehicles, against inadequate(不充足的)mufflers on automobiles.

New York City prohibits the use of automobile horns on stationary vehicles, except as a danger signal. The city also bans the use of any vehicles out of repair to avoid creating loud and unnecessary grating(摩擦声), clashing, or other noises. The city forbids the unnecessary blowing of steam whistles and, along with the state, the use of a stationary internal combustion engine without an effective muffler. These are city laws against excessive noise near schools and hospitals and in the loading and unloading of vehicles, the shouting of street hawkers(叫卖小贩)is forbidden, the dull hum(嗡嗡声)of fans and air conditioners continues to be the citizen’s principal weapon against neighbor’s conversations. The development of off-site, prefabricated(预制的)houses by the Office of Housing and Urban Development in Washington has offered new hope of effective noise controls. The house devised is simpler and less costly to install. Another promising new concert is the development of portable, soundproofed(隔音的)rooms for installation in homes, offices, or industrial plants.

Noise control technology in transportation is also being devised. General Motors(美国通用汽车公司)has designed quieter public trucks, conducting new research into noise abatement(消除)features of body and structural(结构的)framework design, and making its findings available to other manufacturers(生产厂商).

Trucks may be required to reduce diesel engine(柴油机)noise by simple techniques that have already been tested in diesel bus design, basically a sealed engine compartment, mechanically ventilated by fans. Small discharge and line mufflers may reduce air brake noise and frantic(狂乱的)pumping sound. Tired may be designed with cross bar and rib treads(轮胎面)to minimize the familiar whirring(旋转的)noise.

The air transportation industry also has a major noise problem. Aircraft technology is only one part of the problem, however. The other is the quality of life in residential, industrial, and wildlife areas in the vicinity of airports. The noise of the jets is indeed substantial. Environmental factors must be considered well in advance in all aspects of aviation planning.

Reducing the pollution of our rivers, lakes, streams, and offshore waters is important fir the coming generation.

We have made visible and encouraging progress by operating new sewage(污水)disposal projects. Sewage treatment plant’s construction has improved the quality of ten billion gallons of water a day—some 20 percent of all our fresh water resources. Pollution of the rivers, streams, and lakes must be ended as possible—as a prerequisite(先决条件)for our good future and our good health. We can stop water pollution if we are prepared to pay the price.

The basic technology of sewage control has been successfully developed. The primary need is for more sewage treatment of plants and filters. Municipal collection systems gather the sewage in lateral and trunk sewers. When treatment is not provided, the sewage is dumped directly into the nearest waters. Filters ate designed to gather sewage from these trunk and lateral sewers and bring them to the treatment facilities.

Treatment plants receive sewage from collection systems and from filers. Treatment then eliminates many of the harmful(有害的)composition of sewage by sedimentation(沉淀), biological or chemical action(生化反应), and purification. Primary treatment (sedimentation) is always necessary. Secondary treatment (biological and chemical action) is also always necessary. Chlorination(氯化处理)(purification)is needed in most cases. To eliminate existing pollution in industries not tied to municipal sewage collection systems, there must be separate industrial facilities and even changers in industrial processes.

Unit 18 Roses

玫瑰

我发现玫瑰不仅仅是一些特殊场合的精致饰品，而且它们自身也有一种生机勃勃、不屈不挠的精神。反观现实生活，我们是否也曾经带有偏见地误会了其他看起来娇弱无力然而生命顽强的东西呢？

I had a prejudice about receiving flowers. Even though I had asked my colleagues and friends never to get me roses, they still did it from time to time. It was hard to conceal the disappointment that distressing me when I saw that exquisite white box tied with a beautiful velvet ribbon. “A little flower coffin(棺材)” was the first thing that came into my mind. It was true they were grown to be cut down just for joyous moments, but even so as I looked at the flawless bright buds waiting to open, I still couldn\'t stop thinking about them sitting on my dining room table, drying up and dropping petals(花瓣). And all the while I was thinking, \"pretty soon I\'m going to have to throw those roses in the garbage and I\'ll feel bad about that too.” They could be pressed in a book but either way it was all the same to them.

So pretty much I had avoided roses altogether until recently when about twenty rose bushes came into my life. The only instruction that came with the roses was to trim them off to where there were five leaves. Being somewhat overwhelmed about what I considered the difficulty to take care of the roses, I anxiously pressed for more reliable information and augmented knowledge in rose cultivating. Rather than received mystical(神秘的) flower knowledge from the experienced gardener, I was told simply to water them. As with all things, I decided to do my best and see what would happen.

The first roses of the year came in like a row of fire. Quite unexpectedly in the late spring, a row of rose bushes on the side of my house bloomed with a chorus of hundreds of pink flowers. There wasn\'t much smell to them but as I had found out, every different type of rose had its own maturity period. While the other thinner bushes were taking their time growing their buds, these prickly weedy(似野草的) roses were past maturity and ready to be trimmed.

Knowing nothing about the physical structure of roses except the simple tips from the previous gardener, I went to shear them with a pair of kitchen scissors. Grabbing a withered(枯萎的) pink rose, I looked at its lateral stem. Every few inches were a set of leaves. Those farther away from the flower had five leaves while those closer had only three. Where the set of three connected to the stem, there was a small bud—nothing much, just a point of color. There was nothing like this near the set with five leaves but following the instruction, I cut off the rose here losing bud and all. After several hours\' work, a pile of rose petals and stems lay on the ground and I swept them up without a bit of remorse(怜悯).

Often while trimming the bush, I would watch the tiny world inside. Spider webs hung inside branches and while the spider usually hid from the scissors, I examined their homes. Some of them were dried and torn from their original foundations while others were fresh and shiny.

Even though the roses bloomed wildly in my yard, like grass in the pasture, I still didn\'t feel completely confident in my knowledge of their care. One day while passing by a garden shop I went in and browsed through the flower section. After getting bored with the how-to pamphlets, I wandered around and ended up by the floral (花卉的) coolers. Down at the bottom were canvas bags, bucket and small pails crammed full(填满) of ladybugs(瓢虫)! The bag didn\'t move too much like you would expect a bag of 500 insects to do, but I took a bag to the counter for no other reason than pure curiosity and the joy of having in my possession for a few moments a bag full of the gentle fairy tale creatures.

I learned something that day. While waiting at the counter, recollecting about the youthful joy of acquiring even one ladybug—a childhood memory was more precious than gold—I asked the cashier in bewilderment how anyone could catch so many. I learned that these ladybugs are grown, not caught.

On the car ride home, the bag began to buzz(嗡嗡声) and move as it warmed up. Once home. I just had to look at the ladybugs\' spots. Each one had four or six. Did that tell the sex of the bug or its age? I carefully cut a large hole in the canvas and held the bag over the rosebushes.

A few ladybugs weakly flew a few inches from the bag then dropped on the nearest branch while the majority, still remained crawling over each other inside the bag. After being shaken out of the bag, the rest hung slowly on the bush. A gust of wind blew across, and their instinct made them fly away in all different directions. Even though it was not the mass motion l had expected, for one brief moment l felt the joy of a liberator(解放者),as a compensation for their action.

Trimming off the roses became my daily work. After a time 1 went back to where I had trimmed before and noticed how the bush had grown. Even if a branch was cut to the set of five leaves where there was no bud, soon a small colored claw would appear, grow outward and eventually become a rose. Sometimes two would grow from the same branch and these in turn would create two new buds each. I began to notice a pattern and started experimenting. By cutting back to where the closest bud appeared, no matter how small, and no matter how many leaves it was attached to, you could double or even triple the number of flowers. I also found you couldn\'t hurt the rosebush no matter where you trimmed it. The decision where to cut had to be made with figuring out where the most buds would likely appear if creating more flowers was the goal. Sometimes the decision to trim was made on balancing the branch one way or another because the roses themselves added a lot of weight. Sometimes it became necessary to trim back huge branches themselves when a bush grew over its boundaries. Roses, I found out, were not only delicate adornments(装饰品)for special occasions but also a representation(代表(权))of a kind of vigorous and enduring spirit. A rose branch held up by a bough(大树枝),grew up to the roof on my house then descended down flecking(饰以斑点)the brick wall with delicate, red or white dots like a watercolor(水彩画).

There is one rosebush that\'s still a mystery. It never grows above two feet high and its two erect branches are no thicker than a pencil. Every few weeks, however, thirty of so huge red buds simultaneously pop up on its branches. Watching this bush is like watching a comedian you know who is going to slip on a banana peel. One day the buds all open and the bush arches from the weight. It has done this time and again with no damage to the branches so I just leave it alone. Apparently this bush has some serious business to work out and why should I interfere?

So I guess I don’t feel so bad anymore about the roses that have dried up on my dining room table. For sure I’ve trimmed back a hundred times that many since caring for my bushes. I’m still not accustomed(使习惯)to the thought of boxed flowers and maybe now I realize why. Roses that come in boxes are a mere fragment of the experience and perhaps the least rewarding part of the whole.

Unit 19 Knights Honor(I)

骑士的荣誉(一)

两情相悦、世俗阻碍、他人横刀夺爱、骑士英勇复仇，这是一部很古典的外国武侠小说……

Chapter 1

Shortly before daylight, Robert began to stir. He stretched his shoulders, feeling his bones grind against one another as they found their normal junction With a great deal of effort, first his right eye, then his left, opened against the cloak of tears and dirt that had sealed them shut while he slept.“I can\'t see,“he thought.“Have I gone blind? Are my eyes even open? Are there bandages on them? I can’t be sure.”He touched his cheek with a forefinger(食指),tracing gently toward the outer edge of his left eye.“Yes, they’re wide open. They sore!”He rubbed his eyes, loosening the clogged(堵塞的)coarse veil, then blinking(眨眼)them and effusing(流出)tears to refresh them.

A faint light penetrated the glum. “Where am I?”he wondered.

His faculty made him aware that, wherever he was, he was not alone. Something warm and soft like sponge was beside him. And it was snoring(打鼾)!He thought for a moment and then it started to come back to him. No, he most certainly wasn’t alone! The body next to him was that so-called colonel that untidy, blundering lump man who had so very nearly gotten them both killed the previous evening.

Robert rolled away from his companion, shrewdly lest he would disturb the man’s sleep. The Curtain of darkness was lifting without restraint and he could perceive and acquaint himself a little more with his surroundings. The refuge in which they were staying he found was really quite spacious. He felt the smooth surface of the granite(大理石)against his back.

Now that he had more room, he uncoiled his raw body, feeling his blood saturate his limbs, his trunk and his brain. He yearned to leave this place and the swell of flesh that continued to rumble and chew in its sleep. “I can’t do that. I have to get us out of this dilemma.1 guess I’ll just wait until this bull rouses. By then 1 should have a plan. Whether he likes it or not, I am taking charge. He must concede his authority to me. I’m not going to let his humiliating behavior be my downfall.’ He narrated (讲) to himself.

Before the colonel awakened, Robert allowed himself the venture of reflecting on the events of the previous day. It was beyond his understanding how they could have found themselves victimized(使受害)so easily. There was nothing in the dawning of yesterday to warrant the hostile change that was to happen. But there had been warning signs that something bad was pending(悬而未决).

“If only she had agreed to run away with me!”he said to himself.

Chapter 2

The Earl(伯爵)of Morley was a man with ambitions. He had a strong desire to conquer and obtain. Once he decided he wanted something, be it property or county maiden, through conspiracy or erroneous plot, he would rejoice his selfishness by whatever means necessary. He was never shameful(可耻的)for his greed(贪欲)and being of no virtue at a11.The origin of yesterday\'s conflagration(大火灾)was the Earl’s lusty(贪欲的)craving(渴望)for the daughter of Lord Stafford.

Lady Janine, the Lord\'s only child, was spending a vocation with her tutor in a village on the edge of the Earl\'s extensive land when the Earl first saw her. Her beauty did not escape him, and he immediately began to pursue her, shrewdly immersing himself into her company. He also flattered her every chance he got. Lady Janine, a haughty(高傲的)young woman, was indifferent to his unwelcome courtship(求爱).

Not a man to take rejection lightly(轻易地),the Earl\'s initial response normally would have been simply to kidnap the object of his passion. This time, however, he made a resolution that he coveted(非分地妄想)more than just a casual companionship with the young lady. He wanted her to be obedient, to accept him as her husband. With this in mind, and following the rules of social custom of the day, he sent an agent, a monk(修道士)from the monastery(修道院)near the village, to her father to relay his message and act on his behalf. As a sign of good faith, the monk was to present the lady with a ring in which was set a ruby of huge proportions.

The monk arrived at the castle in simplicity only to be met by Lady Janine’s father. Lord Stafford, being a straightforward man, did not disguise his feelings. “To prompt matters, and to assure you there is no doubt in my daughter’s mind that the Earl’s propositions are to no success, please tell him that 1 will never consent to a union between them. He is unfit(不适宜的)for my daughter. She despises him! Tell him to forget this ridiculous show. He has sent you on a fool’s mission.”

Touching the brim of his hat in farewell, the depressed monk turned around and returned to give Lord Stafford’s response to the Earl. How was he going to tell him that this unsuccessful attempt was unlikely to be reversed? How was he going to elude(躲避)punishment(惩罚)?The Earl was sure to show his scorn and hatred by dismissing him from the estate.

Chapter 3

“Sire(阁下),”the monk stammered(结结巴巴地说),“I fear Lord Stafford has refused your suit.’’

“What, exactly, were his words?”demanded the Earl in torrent.“Has he merely deferred(推迟)his decision or has he taken a resolute declaration?”

“Sire, I am certain he will not change his mind. It seems his daughter would prefer to take another as her husband.”

The Earl scorned at this suggestion. “She is but a girl, and has had no experience。nor。I am told, has she any suitors(追求者).I like young and beautiful women.1 will have her!”

The monk was sent back to the monastery to resume his preaching, an act that greatly surprised him as he had expected to be doomed or suffer ejection from the estate. He wondered what the Earl’s next approach would be and sincerely hoped his cooperation was at an end.

For a time, a state of desolation descended the Earl’s very being. He spent hours on end despising himself for being such a fool, neither eating nor sleeping. Then, he became very angry. “How dare she refuse me?1 will have her!”

With this thought in mind, he commenced to win her by evil means, since his previously extraordinary behavior had been rejected. And so began the complex plan to spoil the lovely Lady Janine by violence and then ransom(向…勒索赎金)her to her father for a large amount of money.

His subordinates were sent to spy on the fair maiden. When he learned that Lady Janine’s father was to travel to another province to oversee(视察)his estates there, leaving Lady Janine in the care of his staff, the Earl decided to seize both the girl and the Lord’s treasures.

A small village surrounded the castle. In the dead of night, the Earl and his recruits raided and occupied it like lightning with little resistance from the tenants. The following morning, he approached the gates of the mansion(宅邸)of the Lord, on]Y to be opposed by the presence of armed guards, fifty knights(骑士)in armor(盔甲).As the Earl had not expected to find that the castle had been keeping prepared for the assault, he had to discard his preliminary plan in which he would simply attack and steal. Now he had to fight to abolish the guards. His capturing the village gave him a good position and his cunning gave him the advantage.

Chapter 4

Robert gazed thoughtfully at the misty exterior of frost icing the red and gold leaves of the maple(枫树)and walnut(胡桃树)trees situated on the hillside(山坡)across from the ridge where the mouth of the cave is located. His thoughts took him back to his first sight of Janine.

The son of a servant, Robert was employed by Lord Stafford as a stable boy. His duties included clearing the animal dirt out of the canals behind the horses, putting fresh straw in the stalls, and preparing and watering the horses. One day, as he was cleaning the horse stable, a girl about his own age appeared in the doorway. “My father said I am to tell you to prepare my mount(供骑乘用的马)for me.”

Robert was so surprised by her request; he blushed and didn’t respond immediately. “Are you deaf?”she asked.

“No, Milady(夫人,小姐),99 he replied.“You startled me. Which of these ponies(小马)is the one you prefer?”

“I don’t ride a pony! I usually ride that black mare(母马),”she answered irritably.

“I’11 have her ready in a moment, Milady.”

As soon as the mare was saddled and bridled(系上马笼头),Janine mounted her with Robert’s assistance. She walked the mare out of the barn, and thrust her into a gallop as soon as they were in the barnyard. It was obvious she was a skilled rider.

Robert appraised her ability, reassured himself that she could carry herself quite nicely on horseback, and returned to his work.

And so their relationship began. He soon learned that Janine was passionately impulsive, witty, snobbish(势利的)and lacks modesty(谦虚),whereas he, Robert, was calm and thrifty(节俭的),as well as totally enchanted(使迷恋)by her. When she discovered he was illiterate, she taught him to read and write, although most of his writing was difficult to read. In return, he taught her to do mathematical operations, something he had always done in his head before she taught him the symbols for the numbers. He worshipped her. Over the next few years, their decent friendship grew, eventually turning to love.

Unit 20 Knights Honor(Ⅱ)

骑士的荣誉(二)

幸运的罗伯特由于表现英勇，得到了国王赏赐的莫利伯爵的土地、财产和爵位，从一名小小的骑士晋升为伯爵，顺利地与詹妮成了婚……

Chapter 5

It was clear from the beginning that they could have no future together. They were from two different worlds. Although Robert had grown into a strong, intelligent and handsome young man, his blood was not that of the royalty. This meant he could not woo(追求)Janine openly.

Janine’s father was a shrewd man. He recognized and comprehended that Robert would be a fine mate for his daughter, but the lack of good ancestry didn’t warrant the alliance between them. Lord Stafford was not vacant of feelings for the lad, and showed this when he entitled Robert to enter into the realm of knights. Lacking noble blood anchored his chances of becoming a knight, but if he verified the potential Lord Stafford recognized in him, he would discharge himself well, and possibly rise above his station.

Robert showed perpetual zeal in his studies and loyalty to his alliances. He never evaded responsibility, was never late, was quick and skillful in the use of weapons including sword. dagger(匕首)and spear, etc. He also showed keenness in his shrewdness, was brave in battle, and famous for his honesty(诚实).A favorite among leaders and peers(贵族),he rose through the ranks to become the apprentice(学徒)of the most famous and successful knight in the northern provinces.

Unable, still, to wed(娶)Janine, he entreated her to run away with him. Janine admitted that she wished to be with him, but the violation to the taboo of a secret marriage would bring disgrace upon her father and contaminate their good name. Robert was desolate and returned to his detachment, hoping she would change her mind and not abandon him.

Now he was deeply(深深地)sorry. Janine had been kidnapped from her father’s estate by the Earl of Morley and was being held as a hostage for ransom in one of his many jails. Lord Stafford had called upon Robert to come to his aid and to bring with him as many knights as possible to fulfill Janine’s release. Robert’s main objective was to rescue Janine and reclaiming her honor. He prayed he could do this before the conspiring(阴险的)kidnapper further hurt her.

Chapter 6

Janine’s courage had thus far kept her from being bedded by the Earl of Morley; she reproached each time he approached. Herr raging temper and threats to hideously(可怕地)wrench and tramp him should he attempt to touch her were met with pretentious(狂妄的)laughter. Besides, the Earl was involved in an enfeoffment(封地)confrontation of his own family. He didn’t have time to try to win her over by being scheming.

It was Janine’s plan to maintain a climate of vicious contempt in her refusal of the Earl. Every time she thought of Robert, she became increasingly silent. “Why did I have to be such an idiot?”she asked herself.“If I had run off with him, none of this would have happened. My father’s estates would not have been butchered.1 would not be in peril(危险).And if Robert finds me,1 will have endangered(危及)his life by exposing him to this devil.”

Inner annoyance troubled her every waking moment, even when she was sleeping it was restless. She began to lose hope. If someone didn’t come soon, she would have to become the wife of the notorious nobleman. There was no point in asking him to release her. She knew inwardly that he would refuse her request.

During the night she sensed a change. She thought she had become accustomed to her misfortune, accepting that her liberty would not be achieved before the Earl forced her to submit to him. Suddenly alert, she approached the window of her bed chamber. Through the window, in the distance she could see an orange glow reflected from the clouds and the odor of smoke drifted in the chill night air. “The village is on fire! Why would the Earl want to harm the peasants? He must be crazy! I have to get out of here before he returns!”

At that moment she started to prompt her own escape. She began to groan, softly at first, then mounting in frequency and volume. She quivered on the bed, alternately clutching her stomach and wringing(绞,扭)her hands in a simulation of extreme discomfort(不适).Her guard, thinking his charge was in distress, entered the room hastily; neglectful of the danger he was now in. As soon as he was close enough, Janine hoisted her club, improvised(临时准备)from a piece of firewood(木柴),striking him so hard that he fell unconsciously on the floor.

Treading(行走)cautiously, she made her way down the staircase and out of the Earl’s domain, surprised to find that she saw no one as she left.

Chapter 7

Bounced from his illusions by a sudden grumble(咕哝)from the colonel, Robert returned to the reality of their dilemma.

He heaved himself up from the floor of the cave and patted the colonel into full wakefulness. “I think we must take stock of the wreckage your stupidity has caused to us.”he shouted at him crankily(暴躁地).“If we follow the creek(小溪),and enter the village deviously(绕道地), it is possible that we might be able to take some of it back through the element of surprise.’’

The colonel, reproached by his underling(下属),refused at the idea of taking orders from Robert.

“If you do as I say,1 will not ridicule(嘲笑)you in public and you may, just possibly, be able to rejoice victory and flee from reproach!”Robert told him forcefully.

It took the colonel a moment to decide to abide by Robert’s conditions. “Tell me what you want me to do,”he said in agitation. He wasn’t intelligent, but he was shrewd enough to know his career as a knight would end if he disputes. He would willingly become Robert’s collaborator because he could not afford to be found reproachable for yesterday’s disaster, leading his soldiers into the Earl’s surprise attack.

“We must discover Janine’s exact whereabouts and extricate(救出)her without creating further trouble. Put on your helmet, pick up your canteen, and we’11 be on our way.1 warn you, though, abstain(放弃)from meddling(管闲事)in my plan. You are to follow my orders without questions. You needn’t be elaborately worried that 1 will rumor you, if you obey me,”Robert told him.

And so they set out on their quest to rescue Janine and suppress the fires of war.

Chapter 8

The edge of the creek water was coated with newly formed ice, glossy(有光泽的)and golden in the early morning sun. As beautiful as it was, it was risky when it slit beneath their feet, making so much noise to alert the enemy of their approach. They left the concealment(隐蔽处)of the overgrown(簇叶丛生的)bank of the stream as they drew nearer to the village. Going into the open was filled with danger as well, but with any luck, they would be able to see it before they were seen.

It was manifest that the village had suffered significantly from the Earl’8 strike. Robert was stabbed with anger when he saw the acute damage to the small farms on the frontiers. “I swear I will impair that beast on my sword should I be fortunate enough to ferret(搜出)him out of his lair(巢穴)!It is my conjecture(推测)that he will pay gravely for this!”

The perishable roofs of the small stone cottages had been easily caught fire and smoke fumes filled the air. Here and there, tiny wavering of flames was still licking the walls burnt by the earlier fire. Wooden doors hung crippled from their heat-warped(因受热变形的)hinges. Windows were black with grease and smoke.

They needed no precaution as they entered the town. It had been deserted. “I see no signs of butchery(屠杀).Our men must have made it to safety with the wounded. I pray the villagers also found safe refuge.”Robert was thinking aloud.

“Are you all right, dear?”

Robert wheeled at the sound of his love’s voice. “Janine, how did you get here? How did you get that contemptible man to release you? Did he harm you?”

He threw his arms around her, drawing her to him and embracing her. She melted into the safety of his presence, rejoicing in the knowledge that she would never leave his side again. “I’m fine, Robert. I am in confusion, though. Where is that greedy man? I thought he would be near the village。but I saw no sign of him as I came here.”

“We have not seen him either, but you can rest assured he will be punished when the king learns what he had done. Come! I’11 take you to your father. Colonel, see if you can find where the villagers are hiding。and send them to Lord Stafford. I am sure he will be more than generous in rewarding them for their attempted resistance.”

Chapter 9

Lord Stafford was overjoyed to see his daughter and Robert approaching the mansion. He greeted them triumphantly. “I have news for you. When Morley discovered you were gone, he feared for his life, vacated his position and attempted to cross the border to save himself. The King was in the radius and had heard of his conspiracy and betrayal. He had his men positioned, rather accidentally, at the exact site Morley had chosen for his escape, and intercepted(中途阻止)him. You acquitted(做出表现)yourself well, Robert. The King has heard of your exploits. He will tell you himself how you are to be rewarded. It is no secret, though; you will be granted Morley’s lands and holdings, as well as his title. Under his sponsorship, and with my blessings, you two will be free to wed.”

And so it came to be, that Robert and Janine paid respects to the King, had a lavish(盛大的)wedding, and settled into a life of calm wedded happiness, surrounded by Lord Stafford’s grandchildren.

Unit 21 The Perfect Christmas Tree

完美的圣诞树

圣诞节，国外万家团聚的节日，打算回家过节的年轻夫妇一家却遭遇了大风雪和汽车抛锚的困难……

The fresh green smell of Christmas filled the house and the sight of the tree took your breath away. Striped candy canes(糖果)were evenly(均匀地)distributed and colorful paper chains, swans, lambs, donkeys and horses draped(垂下)aesthetically on the branches to compliment the red and gold bulbs. The white silvery winged angel stood at the very top watching over the entire tree. I also placed a cassette player for sortie Christmas songs. It was a beautiful tree; and I knew it deserved a good feedback.

Morris, that’s my husband’s nickname, said 1 was a fanatic(狂热分子)about my tree. I couldn’t help it. It was just my way. It was a lovely tree, from the angel on top to the miniature manger(马槽)my great grandfather made underneath. Grandma told us he carved it the first year they were married. She loved telling stories of knitting scarves(长丝巾)and mittens(手套)for presents. They lived on the plains in a small clay and lumber house for their first four years.

When Laura and I were children, story telling became an integral part of the family’s tradition. It was the climax of every night. We put the manger under the tree when the decoration was done and waited for Christmas Eve when Papa read the Bible stories. Only then were we ready to put the Baby(圣子,指耶稣)in the manger.

Laura has eleven grandchildren and we have two. Cindy and Mark, my daughter Joanne’s identical twins(同卵双生子)。are 14 years old and live in Kansas City(堪萨斯城).We’11 see them in February, but I do miss them all at Christmas. It seems a shame how families move away, but I am thankful for the invention of telephone.

That night I admired the tree critically. “Morris, don’t you think it’s a pretty tree?”

My husband looked up from his periodical and said,“yes, Cora, overall it’s a very nice tree, as always.”We plugged the lights in when the sun went down and ate peanut butter sandwiches and cheesecakes. I looked at the tree and couldn’t denote why it didn’t seem to be perfect enough.

“Cut it out,Cora,you’11 make yourself crazy. It’s a very nice tree, really. Come on look, it’s snowing,”his words led me to the opaque bay through the window. I sat down on the sofa(沙发)next to my husband and picked up the TV Guide. Just as Morris pushed the“()N”button to watch a basketball tournament(锦标赛),the doorbell rang.

The man who pushed the bell was covered with the new fallen snow. He was dressed warmly enough but he looked as though he had been outside a long time. “Please, may l use your telephone?”he asked.

There had been so many warnings about people doing horrible things once they got into someone’s house, my first thought was don\'t let him in.

“I have had ear trouble, my car battery got busted(失败了的),”he said.“I had to walk about a mile before I saw your chimney smoke and the lights shinning in the window. I guess a lot of people aren’t home tonight.”He looked so cold and before I could evaluate him Morris led him into the hall and closed the door. He said his family was in the car wrapped in blankets. They were on the way to his mother-in-law’s house.

Morris took the stranger back to the car. The young couple and their three children had started out after work. According to their timetable(时间表),they were expected to arrive at their destination four hours ago. Thirty minutes after they left Morris and the man were back with the whole family. I had poured coffee and made a few strawberry sandwiches. Morris wasn’t able to get the car started.

The man carried four-year-old Katherine. She was named after her grandmother. I asked if she was Kathy(为Katherine的昵称).“No, I’m Katherine.”she said.

The little boy was only two years older than Katherine. He held shyly to his father’s coat. “Is this Grandma’s?”he asked his mother.

“No, honey, this is someone else’s grandma.”The young mother’s white wool stole(披肩)slipped from her dark hair. She bound the baby in 3 blue blanket and maybe it w3s the 1ight’s flare reflecting from the ceiling’s dome in the hall or maybe it was the special night, but just at that moment she looked like the Madonna(圣母玛丽亚).Her big brown eyes were filled with tenderness as she touched the baby. I felt what she felt. I am a mother myself, you know. She smiled at me, like the smile of an innocent angel, without any impurity(不洁).

“What a miracle you two are, to take us in.”she said.“1 was afraid something had happened to Kevin.”She laid the baby on my cherry patterned sofa. I poured the coffee and served the sandwiches. David, the little boy, and Katherine ate slices of bacon and toast. Then we a11 went back into the living room with more coffee and cookies(小甜饼).Morris made telephone calls and left messages on answering machines. doubtful(怀疑的)that anyone would answer on Christmas Eve.

I poured a cup of coffee for the young mother and asked her name. She smiled that Madonna smile and said. “Maryann.”

“Let me hold the baby while you drink your coffee.”I said.“I think I can remember how.”

“Look at the pretty tree, Mama.”The little boy said.

“Yes, it’s a pretty tree, honey.”I said,“Look at the manger. It’s a token from my great grandfather. He made it a long time ago.”

“Can I hold the little wooden baby?”He asked.

“No, David, just look at it.”His mother said.

“Of course, you can hold it.”1 said. I handed the carved baby Jesus(耶稣)to the little boy.

His little fingers felt the smooth wood and he kissed the carving. Then his father gently put the Baby back into the manger.

We talked and tried to decide what to do next. Kevin had kept calling his mother-in-law repeatedly. Finally, at 10：00 o’clock the man from John’s garage came with a red wrecker truck(救援车).Morris and Kevin went with him and at the minimum of twenty minutes they were back. The Kevin’s family were ready to proceed with their trip.

They all bundled into their warm clothing and Maryann kissed us goodbye. The baby had been sleeping most of the time when they were in our house. When she put his blankets around him, she handed him to me. She put the white stole back on her black hair and I looked at the baby. He opened his eyes and I knew he was too young to smile, but I told you—he did.1 would never forget the look on that infant face. Maybe it was the special night or, as I said, maybe the hall light cast a reflection, but in the blanket around the baby’s head, brightness glowed. They started out the door. “Wait!”I yelled. I put the carved infant Jesus into David’s hand. “I will never forget you.”I said.“Nor we VOU.”said the father.“or your kindness to strangers.”

As they drove out of sight Morris and I came back into the warm room. The Bible was on the coffee table where Morris pm it after he had read to me earlier. The draft from the door turned the fine Bible pages. We sat down and glanced at the holy book. “Anyone who takes care of a little child like this is caring for me!” I leaned back into my husband’s arms and looked at my Christmas tree. IT WAS A PERFECT CHRISTMAS TREE!

Unit 22 Come with Falling Snow

和雪花一起飘来

生活中，要想得到自己想要的东西，有时需要付出本来承受不了的耐心。人们应该从不放弃希望。生活可能会不如人之所愿，但只要希望还在，终归会获得满足……

BY the year my husband turned 40 and I hit the age of 35, John’s parents evidently were worried about us. His older brother had produced three grandchildren. So had his younger sister. We had produced none.

For my in-laws, to love is to worry. When John’s parents visited us from New York, his mother would get me alone and inquire delicately. After a perfect summer seafood dinner at their beach house, the same questions were fired at us. They always made attempts to know our attitude. Didn’t we want kids? Or was there a problem with our marriage?

John’s father rarely said anything, yet I knew that she spoke for both of them. He was a re

tired ambassador and he liked to call himself a cranky(怪僻的)old mail. But I knew that he cared

and they fretted(烦忧)over us together.

By then we were wondering too. In earlier years the pressure to procreate(生育)had made us roll our eyes. In our 20’s and even into our 30’s,we were ambivalent(矛盾的)about the whole idea of children. We certainly didn’t regard the decision as anyone’s business but our own. Besides, what was the big deal(了不起)?His parents already had six grandchildren. Why did they need more from us?

Then one day we realized that we were real adults—old enough to be somebody’s parents. We had exceeded the age of youthfulness. Suddenly we felt ready for a child.

As a baby became central to our hopes, I better understood my in-laws’ interference. Now in their sliver years, they took the connection between their later years of life and their children and grandchildren for their greatest pleasure. Our child would provide both us and them with a lifeline to the future.

Yet to hope does not always mean receiving. By the time 1 was 35,John and I had been“trying”for three years, however, I did not get pregnant. It seemed that Mother Nature(自然的力量)was displeased(使不快).Our sex life became a lab experiment, and our emotional life wavered monthly between hidden optimism and ruined expectations. Then finally, one day in January. The pregnancy test(孕检测试)turned pink(孕检测试呈现粉红表示怀孕).John and I stared repeatedly at the supernatural stick in excitement and could not firmly believe. Was this true? Should we tell everyone?

We decided to tell his parents on February 15, the day John’s father would turn 70.We were planning to surprise him by going up a few days early and to join the family for a birthday dinner at an elegant New York City restaurant. By then 1 would be six weeks pregnant. What an idea it would be to give him the ultimate gift—the news that, at long last, we would add a baby to the family.

We flew into Baltimore(巴尔的摩),planning to drive to New York the next day with John’s sister and her family. But nature was not cooperative. That was the winter of 1960,the year that broke records of snowfall on the East Coast(美国东海岸).A typhoon blew up then. And the weather forecasts issued stern warnings not to drive the next day.

We watched the news late into the night, huddled beside the fireplace as the snow continued to fall. Drinking hot tea and hot alcohol, we debated whether to drive out the next day. Finally, we acceded(同意)to the decision that the event meant too much not to gamble on it. My brother-in-law(妹夫),a can-do man who inspires absolute confidence, was cautious but willing to take the wheel.

The next morning we loaded into their station wagon—four edgy(急躁不安的)adults, three excited young boys and a golden retriever(猎狗).Then we spent eight tense hours driving north on icy(冰的)highways in a whirling blizzard(大风雪).

when we finally arrived t hat night, the landscape(地形)of the outskirts of New York had been transformed into a Nordic(北欧的)paradise. John’s father still had no idea we were coming. Wrapped in a huge thermal coat。John knocked on the front door. “How hard it is snowing!”He said to his dad. When his puzzled father finally recognized him and ascertained what really happened, he sank back into a chair. How had we appeared from Texas in the midst of a bleak snowstorm so fierce that airports had canceled flights? All of us thought that to make the old man stunned and pleased was worth the freezing on the long journey.

We didn’t make it into the city for our elegant dinner：the roads and bridges were Virtually in accessible(达不到的).We ended up eating at a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Excited by our successful adventure, we made a noisy, festive(节日似的)party around the big family table. John and I exchanged a glance—now? Then I respectfully presented his father with a gift-wrapped box. He opened it, stared bewildered at our gift, a baby doll in a fabric fashioned from a Texas(得克萨斯州)flag. He held up the doll and kept saying“Oh my Cod!”with watering blue eyes. It traveled around the table, everyone congratulated us.

The next morning, I started to bleed and to feel pain. Then to bleed more. Both my sisters-in-law had suffered troublesome pregnancies. Late that afternoon they sat with me and John in his boyhood bedroom as we struggled to face the matter. I found a spiritual comfort from their concern and anxiety. A call to my doctor confirmed the terrible truth：I had probably had an abortion(流产).

That night the eight adults went out for a formal makeup birthday banquet at a restaurant. The atmosphere was strange and bittersweet(苦乐参半的).A 70th birthday celebration innately(天生就有地)has a dark note; to make a fuss of it is to acknowledge that the life is finite. Death may come at any hour. Aching with cramps(腹痛)and grief, I had wanted to stay home in bed. The sufferings spoiled my appetite. But John and his family had insisted on my joining them, and they were right. Our communal(集体的)dinner honored our father’s long life. We were family; sharing great meals was our glue and our comfort. We all drowned our complicated emotions in the toasts to my father-in-law(岳父).

The weather cleared the next day, and we flew home. On the way to the airport, I saw the doll lying abandoned in the back of my sister-in-law’s station wagon. Its face smiled up at me mockingly. Let them throw it out. I thought.1 wished we had never given my father-in-law that absurd baby doll.

Back home. John and 1 were struck down by the power of our grief. Neither of us could drag ourselves to work. We felt like a couple of baggage in a locker. After we had tried so long and got pregnant, the miscarriage(流产)was a tough, depressing loss. And to have lost the pregnancy so publicly made it even worse.

But once again, nature surprised us. Two months later, almost by accident, I turned up pregnant—a miracle! This time, we superstitiously(迷信地)kept the news to ourselves for a full three months. During those long days, we barely even allowed ourselves to believe in the pregnancy. If we had no expectations, then maybe we couldn’t be hurt. But despite our fears, this one was a keeper. The little being inside me lived and blossomed, grasped kicked, and together we grew into fullness.

On January 31, our daughter, Addie, was born. When she emerged after a long, hard labor, I asked for her to be placed skin-to-skin on my chest. She felt warm and solid and delicious. We gazed into each other’s eyes and 1 was instantly in love. The many obstacles that John and I had Overcome made US go into raptures(兴高采烈)over the birth of the little being. Among our most joyous phone calls was the one to his parents. We did it! She’s here! She’s perfect!

The next morning, when John’s mother Game down to breakfast, she found the doll dressed in the Texas flag. Unknown(未知的)to US, my old father-in-law had kept the little darling dull tucked away for a year. Before placing the doll next to his wife’s plate, he had taped a note to it. It read“Hi, I’m Addie.”

He understood what we did not：life sometimes demands more patience than you can bear. He hadn’t given up hope. Our happiness didn’t come in the form we first expected, but it was delivered just the same.

It rarely snows in Austin(奥斯汀市)。Texas, but on Addle’s first birthday, the sky turned gray, then it snowed. The city was in white. I bundled up our sweet girl and carried her outside SO that she could feel and taste the falling snow a rare birthday gift from nature. We laughed as we caught snowflakes(雪花)on our tongues. I hadn’t seen snow myself since that East Coast storm two years before. Then it had been accompanied by an emotional blizzard. Now 1 watched it fall gently as I cradled my giggling(咯咯笑)daughter in my arms. I had learned a lot about love, hope and being a family in two years’ time.

I tried to make 0ut the intricate structure of individual snowflakes, to Capture their unique beauty. But they melted on my hand. So I gave up and watched as they united into white drifts on our deck, gathering like the fullness of our family’s life.

Unit 23 The Shipwreck

海难

所有灾难中，也许只有海难是最令人感到无奈的。在茫茫大海上，既不如遭遇空难一样完全无助，更不如遭遇陆地灾难一样有物可依，有的只是禁不住人的海水，幸运的话可能会有一些漂浮物，最多也就有一些幻想罢了……

The rumble(隆隆声) of the ship\'s engine was too loud and Greg could not get to sleep. He got up and put on an overcoat because he could hear the wind outside, and a walk on the deck was what he needed to calm his nerves. The tossing of the ship caused him to stagger as he went down the passage way to the upper deck. Outside the wind it was fierce and he clung to his lapel(衣领) to keep his coat from blowing off. The port(船左舷) side of the ship was less windy and Greg found a sheltered passage way amid the ship.

Sitting on a deck chair he began to think of the reasons for taking this voyage. Why had his marriage gone wrong? Who was at fault? Why did his wife\'s lifestyle and his never seem to coincide? He felt bitter and guilty at the same time. The sound of the wind and the harsh(刺耳的) whipping of the ship in the rough sea played destruction with his reasoning.

He was half dozing off when he looked up and standing in the passage way was a figure clutching an overcoat. He could see by the waving of the long black hair that it was a woman. She dropped down onto a deck chair next to him and said, \"Do you mind?\"

He said, \"No, not at all, be my guest(欢迎赏光，请随便). \"

She settled down in the chair and said, \"This wind and the rough sea are more than I can take and I just have to get out. \"

\"I know what you mean, I sure hope it doesn\'t last much longer, my nerves are on edge. \"

\"Mine, too. \" she agreed. He cast a glimpse at her face and remembered her sitting alone at dinner, like himself.

\"My name\'s Greg. I noticed you were dining alone. I assume you are sailing by yourself?\"

\"Yes, I am, my name is Pearl, isn\'t this weather terrible?\" Greg nodded and clutched his coat tighter. They sat for quite some time, not saying anything. Her thoughts wondered back to home and to her troubles. Her husband was killed in an auto accident and this trip was to ease herself and relieve her sadness. The rough sea and the howling(嚎叫的) wind didn\'t help very much.

Then they chatted a bit to pass the time. Greg thought it was a nice relief to have someone to talk to. They both, however, managed to overlook the howling of the wind and the pitching of the ship as they related their tales of misery to each other. There was a natural feeling of attraction between them as they chatted the night away. Just before daybreak(黎明), they both dozed off.

Suddenly the ship lurched(倾斜). The whole deck tilted and their chairs slid out of the passage way and before they were even conscious of what was happening they were thrown overboard(向船外的). Greg lost sight of Pearl as he hit the water head first. He could hear the boat\'s whistle wail(呼啸) out in a frantic cadence(调子). It was pitch dark as he scrambled around in the water, his coat helped him stay afloat(漂浮的). A wave submerged his head and he thought, \"This is the end?\"He struggled to keep from sinking by grabbing firmly a floating piece of debris(残骸) of the ship.

In the darkness he heard a woman cry out for help and moved over towards the sound. Reaching out, he seized her by her hair and pulled her up to his side. \"Are you all right?\"

She cried out, \"Yes, I\'m all right, oh God, thank you. \" He could tell by the sound of her voice that it was Pearl. She clung to him for dear life,

Suddenly the wailing sound of the boat whistle stopped as the ship plunged down into silence.They clung to the debris and managed to stay afloat in the darkness for what seemed like a endless abyss(深渊).

Dawn was breaking and the two lay debilitated (虚弱无力地) on the debris with their limbs soaked in the water. The storm blew over and there was nothing to be seen on the ocean except several pieces of debris floating in the distance. Apparently, no one else survived. Pearl gasped, \"They must have been caught in their beds. \"

A feeling of gloom set in on the two weary survivors and would have devoured(毁灭) them but suddenly Greg caught a sight of an island in the distance. \"Look, Pearl, there is an island ahead.\" They both paddled till their arms ached. After a zealous effort they were able to touch the beach sand beneath their feet.

They hailed with great joy and struggled to the edge of the water. There they fell to their knees, thanking God for their fortune. The two crawled out of the water and laid down in the warm sun to rest themselves from their dreadful experience.

After a good rest, they got up and toured the little island and found fresh water, and something to eat. Greg managed to break open some coconuts(椰子) and they used the shells for drinking the heavenly water. Fortunately, the temperature was mild so survival was possible. The only thing they had were the clothes on their backs, their memories of home and the terrible experience they\'d been through. They managed to build a lean-to(单坡屋顶) of twigs(树枝) and palm branches.

Their thoughts always dwelled on being rescued but they knew it was hopeless, so they did their best to survive. Time passed and somehow they managed to cope with this and a sense of affiliation flourished. In fact without each other, existence would be impossible to imagine. However,the chronic sound of the ship\'s whistle kept haunting(常浮现脑中的) them. The mournful sound was even heard in their sleep.

They swam by the seashore and spent a lot of their hours making their camp livable. The deserted island became a paradise. But the sharp sound of the ship\'s whistle plagued their thoughts. It was like the sound of the voice of Satan(撒旦，魔鬼) desperately demanding more hostages.

At last--the ship\'s whistle ceased--it was then Greg realized they were still on the deck of the sinking ship. The small island was nothing but his illusion. The last thing he remembered was he reached out his hand and grabbed a lump of hair and pulled her to his side. \"Are you all right?\"

\"Yes, I\'m all right, oh God, thank you. \" By the sound of her voice, he knew it was Pearl.She clung to him for dear life.

Suddenly a huge wave came and took them under, submerging them deep down into the cold,dark and silent water. They clung to each other in desperation and slowly sank down into the eternal depths.

The cruel sea added two more souls to its unsatisfied appetite.

Unit 24 A Teacher Goes Deep into China

一名外教深入了解中国

宜山经历是非同寻常的，因为我在那里的角色是整个县城惟一的一位外国人。我经历了很多从没经历过的风俗、礼遇和小插曲，至今令我回味不已……

INTRODUCTION：February, 1988：I set out to start on a teaching assignment in a closed area of China where I was to be the sole foreigner in Yishan County, population of about half a million Chinese.

PART I THE INVITATION

I had to get an invitation from the Bureau of Education in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Province in order to accept an offer from the Hechi Teachers\' College (河池师范学院), Yishan County,Guangxi Province. Why? Because Yishan County was closed to foreign visitors due to a lack of adequate tourist facilities. The name of the county was changed a couple of years ago to Yizhou and thrown open to outside, but things were different back in 1988.

From a background briefing which I had prior to departure I learnt that the Hechi Teachers\' College trains teachers in a variety of faculties and, after finishing the curriculums, sends them out to the middle schools of Guangxi Province, mainly in poor country areas, to teach a varied syllabus,including English as a foreign language.

My job was to introduce a method of teaching English known as \"the communicative approach(交际法)\" and not only to train the English Department undergraduates in this approach, but also to improve their communicative competence in the English language.

I had quite a journey before I reached the College. I flew to Guangzhou via Bangkok(曼谷) and Hong Kong(香港) where I was met by Mr. Ye, a foreign affairs official from the Guangzhou University of Foreign Languages. He gave me the VIP(贵宾) treatment. I was soon to experience as a \"foreign expert(外国专家，中国政府对外教的称呼)\" in the People\'s Republic.

He ushered me past the customs into a mini-bus and on to the University. I was quite travel-tired by then and was grateful for the comfortable suite with a bathroom where I was able to get a good night\'s sleep.

Next morning after a tasty Chinese breakfast Mr. Ye told me that the University was founded in 1965 and was the first institute of higher education in central and south China. It is set in a beautiful and tranquil part of Guangzhou\'s northern suburbs.

After breakfast I had a marvelous experience: a visit to the Flower Market (广州花市) in Guangzhou, part of the Spring Festival when Chinese celebrate their New Year. The whole of the city\'s central area was closed to traffic and transformed into a gigantic mall. This arrangement enabled innumerable citizens and visitors to wander through row after row of stalls filled with exotic(奇异的) flowers, small trees, fish and birds offered for sale by peasants from the rural regions of Guangdong Province.

On the way into the city in a bus with Mr. Ye, his wife and a party of foreign experts from the U. S. A. , we drove slowly through the crowds rushing through the streets on foot, on waves of bicycles, in buses and other vehicles. The sight was so unusual that my eyes could not take it all in!

For another two days I wandered around the University campus and climbed Baiyun Mountain on the top of which is a fascinating lake. The scene was something from a delicately Chinese greetings card. At the other end of the lake was a restaurant of Chinese architectural design and along the shore to the right I saw small colored canoes fluctuated side by side waiting for someone to hire them. Time, unfortunately, prevented me from the pleasure of rowing out into the middle of the lake and enjoying the tranquil circumstance from that vantage point.

After a few days of these simple, yet unique pleasures, and in spite of the wonderful hospitality, I yearned to reach the destination where I was to live and work in the large county of Yishan. The thought of being the only foreigner in this county of over half a million Chinese excited me and I wanted to get on with it. Mr. Ye assisted me to catch a train to the city of Liuzhou in Guangxi Province, where we transferred to a car.

PART Ⅱ THE ARRIVAL

The Dean of the English Department at the Teachers\' College, Mr. Zhou Yi, together with some senior teachers and a representative of the College president greeted me at Liuzhou Railway Station. Three hours later we drove through the gates of the College.

My first experience of a well-established Chinese custom came the evening after my arrival at Hechi Teachers\' College. I had been installed in my spacious, self-contained apartment--a privilege for a single person--and now it was time for my welcoming banquet. Because a \"foreign expert\" is regarded as a VIP (at least in that remote part of China), the banquet was hosted by the sincere College president, and attended by three vice-presidents, several senior teaching and administrative staff, some local officers (including the deputy mayor and the county\'s Head of Security) and the driver of the car which had transported me from Liuzhou to Yishan.

It was jolly affair with welcoming preliminary remarks and a convivial atmosphere. I wonder how you would have liked the food which included crab, chicken liver, and fried duck\'s legs in sauce. All this was complimented by the brimmed rice wine and a plentiful supply of local beer.

Next morning I had a hearty breakfast of rice noodles, corn porridge, some small spongy cakes, and a couple of bowls of warm milk.

PART Ⅲ SETTLING IN

Once I began teaching, I realized the size of the College. The English Department had nearly two hundred students and, in those days, was one of six departments offering courses to about a thousand students. There were two hundred teaching staff. The students came from all over Hechi,a remote mountainous area composed of several counties with a population of nearly five million people.

Most of the students enrolled belong to one or other of the fifty-five minority nationalities that make up the truly multi-cultural nation of China. The majority of Chinese people are the Han nationality. Having students from such a variety of backgrounds enriched my educational experience.

Another bonus for me was that my students lived, worked and played on the College campus.I was, therefore, able to assist their learning during most of my waking hours because I lived,worked and played with them. This was quite a contrast to my situation at Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia(西澳大利亚州) where my main contact with students was during official lesson periods.

Being the only foreigner on campus, I had quite a lot of attention from what I called \"staring squads(注视小队)\" both at the College and in the little town of Yishan, which was located in the bosom of the mountains. After a month or so, however, everyone had become accustomed to my face as I walked through the town or the College grounds; and so my walks were then usually punctuated with friendly \"hellos\" from all, including the delightful children from the kindergarten opposite my apartment block.

On one of these walks I met with a Chinese custom, which slightly puzzled me at first. On my daily walks to the town area for shopping I would pass many residences. In summer, many of the occupants would leave their front doors open because of the heat and sit in the front room eating their meals. As I passed by they would call out friendly greetings to me and, lifting their bowls towards me, indicate that they were inviting me to join them.

At first I had no notion of what this meant, and didn\'t know how to respond. However, I learnt from my students that the gestures were merely symbolic and traditional and that I was not expected to accept. After a while the custom ceased to embarrass me and I was able to handle it by smiling and saying, \"Xie Xie\" and move on without offending anyone.

Many of the students, the town people and, certainly, the rural peasants had never before set eyes on a foreigner. After a time, though, they all got used to me. the \"staring squads\" diminished in number and finally dwindled(缩小) to the occasional small circle. As a result I constantly got invitations to banquets within the College and in the homes of town residents and teachers from other educational faculties.

One school called the Hongxing Elementary School invited me to a music and dance performance staged especially for me. At that event I was presented with gifts and was made an honorary instructor and member of the Young Pioneers. This entailed being the center of a ceremony during which I was presented with a neckerchief to wear as a token of the honor conferred on me.

All of these experiences were new to me as I had never lived and worked in an Asian country before. The Yishan experience was unique because of the status thrust upon me in my role as the only foreigner in the entire County.

Unit 25 Internet

互联网

互联网是计算机网络的国际性的集成，这些网络都理解一个标准的地址命令系统，并经中枢链路网络连在一起。互联网可以提供的服务为电子邮件、远程登陆、文件传送、电子新闻和实况对话等。可以说，互联网是你的计算机通向世界其他地方的窗口……

The Internet is a giant network of computers located all over the world that communicate with each other.

The Internet is an international collection of computer networks that all understand a standard system of addresses and commands, connected together through backbone systems. It was started in 1969, when the U. S. Department of Defence(美国国防部) established a nationwide network to connect a handful of universities and contractors. The original idea was to increase computing capacity that could be shared by users in many locations and to find out what it would take for computer networks to survive a nuclear war or other disaster by providing multiple paths between users. People on the ARPNET(阿帕网，因特网的前身) (as this nationwide network was originally called) quickly discovered that they could exchange messages and conduct electronic \"conferences\" with distant colleagues for purposes that had nothing to do with the military industrial complex. If somebody else had something interesting stored on their computer, it was a simple matter to obtain a copy (assuming the owner did not protect it).

Over the years, additional networks joined which added access to more and more computers.Today thousands of networks and millions of computers are connected to the Internet. It is growing so quickly that nobody can say exactly how many users \"On the Net\".

The Internet is the largest repository(宝库) of information which can provide very very large network resources. The network resources can be divided into network facilities resources and network information resources. The network facilities resources provide us with the ability of remote computation and communication. The network information resources provides us with all kinds of information services, such as science, education, business, history, law, art and entertainment,etc.

The goal of your use of the Internet is exchanging messages or obtaining information. What you need to know is that you can exchange message with other computers on the Internet and use your computer as a remote terminal on distant computers. But the internal details of the link are less important, as long as it works. If you connect computers together on a network, each computer must have a unique address, which could be either a word or a number. For example, the address of Sam\'s computer could be Sam, or a number.

The Internet is a huge interconnected system, but it uses just a handful of method to move data around. Until the recent explosion of public interest in the Internet, the vast majority of the computers on the Net use the Unix operating system(Unix操作系统，一种多用户的操作系统). As a result, the standard Unix commands for certain Internet services have entered the online community\'s languages as both nouns and verbs to describe the services themselves. Some of the services that the Internet can provide are: Mail(电子邮件), Remote Use of Another Computer(Telnet)(远程登录), File Transfer(文件传送), News, and Live Conversation.

The most commonly used network service is electronic mail (E-mail), or simply as mail. Mail permits network users to send textual messages to each other. Computers and networks handle delivering the mail, so that communicating mail users do not have to handle details of delivery, and do not have to be present at the same time or place.

The simplest way to access a file on another host is to copy it across the network to your local host. FTP(File Transfer Protocol) can do this.

Presently, a user with an account on any Internet machine can establish a live connection to any other machine on the Net from the terminal in his own office or laboratory. It is only necessary to use the Unix command that sets up a remote terminal connection (Telnet), followed by the address of the distant machine.

Before you can use the Internet, you must choose a way to move data between the Internet and your PC. This link may be a high-speed data communication circuit, a local area network (LAN)(局域网), a telephone line or a radio channel. Most likely, you will use a Modem(调制解调器) attached to your telephone line to talk to the Internet. Naturally, the quality of your Internet connection and service, like many other things in life, is dictated by the amount of money that you are willing to spend,

Although all these services can well satisfy the needs of the users for information exchange, a definite requirement is needed for the users. Not only should the users know where the resources locate, but also he should know some operating commands concerned to ease the searching burden of the users, recently some convenient searching tools appear, such as Gopher(一种因特网的资源检索工具), World Wide Web (WWW)(万维网) and Netscape(Netscape公司的因特网浏览器).

WWW is a networked hypertext protocol (超文本协议) and user interface (用户界面). It provides access to multiple services and documents like Gopher does but is more ambitious in its method. A jump to other Internet service can be triggered(触发) by a mouse click on a \"hot-linked(热链接)\" word, image, or icon on the web page.

As more and more systems join the Internet, and as more and more forms of information can be converted to digital form, the amount of stuff available to Internet users continues to grow. At some points very soon after the nationwide (and later worldwide) Internet started to grow, people began to treat the Net as a community, with its own tradition and customs. For example, somebody would ask a question in a conference, and a complete stranger would send back an answer: after the same question were repeated several time by people who hadn\'t seen the original answers, somebody else gathered list of \"frequently asked questions(常见问题，简称FAQ)\" and placed it where newcomers could find it.

So we can say that the Internet is your PC\'s window to the rest of the world.

Unit 26 Media Coverage

媒体报道

大众传媒已经成为现代生活不可或缺的一部分。但他们真的可信吗？他们能给我们提供的内容到底有多少是真实的和客观的？我们是否只能成为坐在屏幕前接受欺骗的无助的”目标观众”？

What do we expect from those stalwart(坚定的) people who report the news? A past generation of journalists prided itself on the image of the fearless objective reporter, whose slogan was, \"Just the facts, Ma\'am. \" All editorializing was left to the editorials pages. Then the so-called \"investigative journalist\" was born. They blurred the distinction between reporting and editorializing. Investigative journalism seems to see its job as a mission to expose wrongdoing(不道德行为) and corruption in high places. Of course, on occasion(有时) these journalists do a good deed. And with the birth of the investigative journalist came the inevitable News Shows! They\'ve blurred the distinction between news and entertainment, often seeming to cater to(迎合) the public\'s taste for scandal(丑闻) and gossip than for real news. Put them all together and they make up the Media.

The media holds vast potential for education as well as the broadening of individual viewpoints.Conversely, it often has a frightening power to manipulate the minds of the masses. This last fact is demonstrated by millions who have become media dependent. Yes it\'s true. Just as there are people who are alcohol-dependent.

Just look at the effect the media has on most people\'s political views. Elections are sometimes indirectly decided by what the media presents to the public. We often choose political leaders in campaigns conducted in large part in the news, whether it\'s in the form of newspapers or television.It\'s all the same. And the nastier the campaign, the more coverage it gets.

One main area that many people have allowed the media to shape their views on is race relations. Because of the TV images of places that few of the viewers have ever visited, and incidents that they didn\'t actually witness and are not truly well informed about, personal decisions are made.Our fears and doubts about racial bias, rapists(强奸犯) and their victims, world hunger or what have you(等等), are aroused and fueled by a sensation-hungry media. It is also the media that either keeps us pumped up and excited about these issues or that lets our excitement dwindle and subside(减退).But where does it all start? Where does the finished product come from? Who is behind deciding what we all get to actually see in the end?

Whatever it is that we are seeing and reading about the issues mentioned above, and indeed countless others, all depends on the judgment of editors and network executives who are more or less self-appointed(自作主张的) judges of what is newsworthy and what is not. Do you know what it is that most often determines what goes on the front page of a newspaper and what is lost in its back pages? Marketing. Marketing judgment is foremost in making these decisions. Secondly there\'s editorial judgment. \"What is good for the public to hear on this issue?\" That is the question that they ask themselves, and when they formulate an answer they believe to be pleasing enough, then they put it all together and present it.

I have noticed that whenever the media focuses sharply on candidates for the presidency((美)总统职务) or especially for the Supreme Court, more often than not we learn more about their pasts than their current standing(立场) on health insurance, abortion(堕胎), the death penalty or what have you(等等). The media tries to sensationalize their youthful experiments with cocaine(可卡因) or their talks behind closed doors, like these are truly important errors. In today\'s permissive(自由的) and often pervasive(有渗透力的) society, it would be an odd thing indeed if a candidate appeared who didn\'t have any fault, wouldn\'t it? Anyway, for many viewers, and especially our younger generations, the faces that come up on the media screens are more real and more interesting than those of their coworkers, neighbors and schoolmates.

Our judicial(司法的) system could use tuning up too in various areas. More and more in recent years it seems that contributory negligence(因受伤一方本身的粗心而造成的意外事故) is not a viable(可行的) factor in many lawsuits(诉讼). Take this one case in particular. It happened some years back, I disremember where I read it. A guy decided to perform a stupid stunt(绝技), so he strapped a refrigerator onto his back and ran. It was a truly idiotic(白痴般的) thing to do. One of the straps broke, the guy fell down when the weight of the refrigerator shifted on his back. The refrigerator naturally fell on top of him. He got hurt, and he sued the manufacturer that made the broken strap. Believe it or not, he won! Believe it or not, a judge actually awarded him a cool(整整的) million for his troubles. No wonder it is that everywhere you look there are tort lawyers(民事诉讼律师) advertising their services to sue people on your behalf.

What effect does that kind of idiotic suit have on small business? Many small companies can not afford to pay off a million dollar lawsuit and continue to thrive.

One more really curious thing. Nowadays it seems popular to try to get government grants.There is a book that tells one how to apply and get these grants for practically any reason. There once was supposedly a team of young scientists who applied for and actually received a $ 5 000 000 grant in order to do a study of the effects of bacteria on global warming. Is it true? I don\'t know. I wouldn\'t say it didn\'t happen.

Do we know our world well enough? Yes we know some of our world on a first hand basis but most of it we know through the media. Is that a sad thing or a good thing? I suppose it depends on whether or not the media does accurate reporting.

For instance, some people in a television audience may not know one single African American(非籍美洲人) personally, but he or she does know the media versions of some African Americans and their stereotypes(固定的形象) ：the up-to-date wise-cracking(说俏皮话的) tough LA(洛杉矶) street kid (who might be male or female), Bill Cosby (who is described as kindly, forever smiling and self-depreciating), or Mike Tyson (described as the violent and self-destructive black male).Yes, the media magnates are undisputed experts at playing out with loving detail, the personal disasters, heroic rescues, and petty scandals that they know the viewers love. However, they take no responsibility whatsoever for providing true insights on credible issues like the politics of race, immigration, education, the national debt, mental health, or unemployment.

Now I ask you.

How does the media shape or distort our reality on a daily basis? Do they always skim the surface of our reality, soundly biting into it at given points and taking away the bits that allow us a chance for thinking about cause and effect? Are we always to be no more than helpless \"target audiences\" sitting around a television screen taking in the hype? Or can we do something to influence the steady stream of images and ideas that the media present to us?

Unit 27 The Freak Accident

意外伤害

玛蒂因一次意外事故失去了双腿的功能，但她没有消沉，反而发挥自己的才能，录制了一部介绍残疾人生活的录像，并获了奖。这次事故给了她改变世界的机会，也让她成为一名很好的制片人……

Dr. Kaye, Marty\'s neurologist, called it a “freak(意外的)” accident because the chance of it happening to a 10-year-old girl was almost nil(零). “The fact is, ” Dr. Kaye droned(低沉地说出), “spinal cord(脊髓) injuries occur most often among men ages 18--24. Paraplegia(下肢麻痹) is generally the result of motor vehicle accidents. Medical science is still in search of a cure,”she had noted with authority.

Marty had heard those words five years ago. At the time Dr. Kaye had given her the bad news, about not walking again, Marty was not listening. She was thinking about the freak accident.

It all happened on a Thanksgiving Day, when she was just 8 years old. Marty and her older sister, Eleanor, had gone to their backyard to pick apples for their mom. When Marty reached the top of the ladder, the rotten wood gave way. She tumbled noiselessly to the ground. There hadn\'t been pain.

But then, she noticed her legs didn\'t move.

The last words Marty remembered saying were, “Eleanor, get room, something is wrong. ”The next thing she remembered was lying in bed in the Children\'s Hospital. The surgical ward was active and fun. Respiratory therapists came every day to Marty\'s bedside. They taught her to blow the harmonica(口琴) so that she could strengthen her lungs.

Occupational therapists taught her to make birdhouses and belts. Her favorite therapist, Laura, was a physical therapist (理疗师). She taught Marry to use a wheelchair and to wheel down steps.

After just 3 months, Marry had gone home. Her mom had the house refitted, and a ramp(斜坡) had replaced the front steps.

Marty played chess, swam, went to school, and even rode horse. She was the same girl she always was; it was the people who had changed.

They said things like, “why not get an electric wheelchair, dear”, to which Marty always wantted to say, “what\'s wrong with wheeling my own chair?” And they always tried to push her chair,even when she didn\'t need help. Couldn\'t they see she managed just fine?

Then there were the other questions like. “what happened to your legs”, to which Marty usually answered, “I thought I still had them, aren\'t they still there?” Then adults would ask her,“how do you go to the bathroom?” And Marty would reply,“I wheel there.”The one question Marty relished(喜欢) was, “how do you sleep?” Without missing a beat, Marty would shoot back,“like a baby, just fine, thanks.”

At first she would answer seriously, “I have a spinal cord injury”, and patiently explain, “I use a sliding board to get into bed, then I lie down.” But after 5 years, she was tired of the questions. So she just made up(捏造) answers.

“People are just curious, Marty”, her mother would explain. “It wouldn\'t hurt to be nice and give a real explanation.”

“Mom, I don\'t want to ask a lot of questions to people who walk, why do they all ask me questions?”

“Just try to be nice Marty, after all you are a role model for others in wheelchairs,” was her mom\'s usual reply.

“I just want to roll my wheelchair in peace, I don\'t want to be a role model.” Marty would shoot back.

Even though she resented the questions, Marty did want people to comprehend what life was like in a wheelchair. She didn\'t want pity；she just wanted people to feel comfortable around her.She hated feeling like some alien in a metal spaceship who was visiting from another planet.

“Well, I\'ve tried to explain, and that gets nowhere”, Marty grumbled to her best friend,Sasha, who had a sister also in a wheelchair. “People still look at me like I\'m sick or weird(怪异的)．”

Sasha thought for a minute about what her friend had said. She had a sudden inspiration.“Hey, I know, why not make a video about what it\'s like to be in a wheelchair? I have a video camera, and we could write a script(剧本), you and me. What do you say?” Sasha enthused(对…表示热心)．

Marty adopted Sasha\'s proposal,“Sasha, you are a genius. We could make a video about your sister and me, and give it to the public library. They could show it to people so they could see what people in wheelchairs can do.”

By the next weekend, the girls had finished their script. Dr. Laura had even drawn a diagram of the spinal cord. It showed how messages went from the brain down the nerves along the spinal cord. The messages ended where Marty\'s spinal cord was broken. That was why when her brain told her legs to move, they couldn\'t. That message never got to the legs. It got as far as the break in her spine.

The video also showed how Marty could get into cars, and into her bed. There was even a part where Marty got on her horse, and took her dog for a walk, and weeded her vegetable garden, and fixed a lamp bracket for the family. The girls decided to leave out the stuff(镜头资料) that showed how she went to the bathroom.

Marty and Sasha went to the Children\'s Hospital\'s ward and filmed the children who were undergoing treatment. They wanted others to see what it was like to lift weights and play cricket, and learn to dress yourself.

The preview was held in the community center events room. All of Marty and Sasha\'s classmates, their parents, the teachers, and the school principal came. The kids from the children\'s ward and the doctors and therapists came, too.

Marty had a lot of fun acting as Master of Ceremonies(仪式主持人). She even had an auction(拍卖) of artwork done by the children in the spinal cord ward. In all the proceeds was $1 000 that she donated to the spinal cord research.

That night, Marty thought about the “freak” accident. She thought how being in a wheelchair made her different, but it also had forced her to make her life special. She had been elected to represent other disabled people and educate them about disabled people. The freak accident had given her the chance to change the world. It had also made her into a pretty good film maker(制片人).

Her video won the children\'s video award, and she got another $1 000 which she donated the children\'s ward.

The apple tree is in bloom again. Sometimes Marty wheels to her backyard and looks up. She does not feel sad；she just tries to figure out how she can pick apples from the highest branch. If anyone can climb up that tree, it\'s Marty.

Unit 28 Death Valley

死亡谷

死亡谷的名字虽然不好，名声也欠佳，但这里并非只有黄沙和岩石的不毛之地。它是一个风景优美的地方，是许多动植物，甚至人类的家园……

Death Valley doesn\'t sound like a very inviting place. It is one of the hottest places in the world. The highest temperature ever recorded there was 134 degrees Fahrenheit, and that was in the shade! Death Valley in California(加利福尼亚州) covers nearly 3000 square miles, from which approximately 555 square miles are below the surface of the sea. One point is 282 feet below sea level--the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. In Death Valley, pioneers and explorers faced death from thirst and the searing heat. Yet despite its name and bad reputation, Death Valley is not just an empty wildness of sand and rock. It is a place of spectacular scenic beauty and home to plants, animals, and even humans.

In 1849 a small group of pioneers struggled for three months to get across the rough land.They suffered great hardships as they and their wagons traveled slowly across the salt flats in the baking sun. They ran out of food and had to eat the oxen and leave their possessions behind. They ran out of water and became so thirsty that they could not swallow the meat. They found a lake and, being wild with joy, fell on their knees only to discover it was heavily salted. Finally, weak and reduced to almost skeletons, they came across a spring of fresh water and their lives were saved. When they finally reached the foot of mountains, they slowly climbed up the rocky slopes.One of them looked back and said, “Goodbye, Death Valley.”That has been its name ever since.

Death Valley is the driest place in North America. Yet far from being dead, it is alive with plants and animals. They have adapted to this harsh region. In the salt flats on the valley floor,there are no plants to be seen. But near the edge, there are grasses. Farther away, there are some small bushes and cactus(仙人掌). Finally, high on the mountainside, there are pine trees.

What is not visible are the seeds lodged in the soil, waiting for rain. When it does come, a brilliant display of wild flowers carpets the once barren(荒芜的) flatlands. Even the cactuses blossom.As the water dries up and the hot summer nears, the flowers die. But first they produce seeds that will wait for the rains of another year.

At noon on a summer day, Death Valley looks truly devoid(缺乏的) of wildlife. But in reality, there are 55 species of mammals(哺乳动物), 32 kinds of birds, 36 kinds of reptiles, and 3 kinds of amphibians(两栖动物). During the day many seek shelter under rocks and in burrows(洞穴). As night approaches, however, the land cools, and the desert becomes a center of animal activity. Owls hunt for mice. Bats gather insects as they fly. The little kid fox is out looking for food,accompanied by snakes, hawks, and bobcats(山猫). Many of these animals, like the desert plants,have adapted to the dry desert. They use water very efficiently. They can often survive on poor water supplies that would leave similar animals elsewhere dying of thirst.

Humans have also learned how to survive in this land. The natives knew where every hidden spring was. They also knew the habits of the desert animals, which they hunted. The natives, and later even the prospectors, ate every imaginable desert animal. They ate everything from the big horn sheep(巨角野羊) to snakes, rats and lizards(蜥蜴). They were often on the edge of starvation, In autumn they gathered nuts from the pine trees. Other foods they ate included roots, cactus plants, leaves, and sometimes insects.

The early prospectors didn\'t know the desert as well as the natives. Many died looking for gold and silver in Death Valley; others did find the precious metals. Then a “boomtown(新兴城镇)” was born. First it consisted of miners living in tents. Then permanent buildings were built. But when the mine failed, the town that was built up around it did too. Today the remains of these “ghost towns(鬼城(因金矿枯竭而被人遗弃的城镇))” are scattered about Death Valley.

Unit 29 Business：How to Serve the Society More Efficiently

企业：如何更好地为社会服务

企业在运营过程中要占用或者消耗社会资源，甚至带来诸如污染等社会问题。而这应列入其社会成本。拿钢铁公司来说，应该要求钢铁公司安装污染控制设备或者支付相当于因污染而造成的社会成本的罚金，否则钢铁公司就是牺牲了社会，养肥了自己。此外，本文也介绍了管理经济学中的其他重要课题……

One very important inquiry in managerial economics concerns the interrelationship between the firm and society. Managerial economics can help to clarify the vital role business firms play in our society and to point out ways of improving their operations for society’s benefit. A business enterprise is a combination of people, physical assets and information (technical, sales, coordinative and so on). The people directly involved include stockholders(股东) , management, labor, suppliers and customers. In addition to these direct participants, all society is indirectly involved in the firm’s operations because businesses use resources otherwise available for other purposes (including air and water), pay taxes if operations are profitable, provide employment, and generally produce most of the material output for our society.

Firms exist because they are useful in the process of allocating resources, producing and distributing goods and services. If social welfare could somehow be measured, business firms might be expected to operate in a manner that would lead toward maximizing some index of social well-being. Just which bundle of goods and services as well as which distribution pattern for the bundle would maximize social welfare is a complex, actually unanswerable, question. It is, however, one of the most vital questions facing us today.

The traditional way of handling this matter in the United Stated has been through the economic and political systems. The economic system produces and allocates goods and services through the market mechanism. Firms determine what consumers desire, bid for the resources necessary to produce these products, and then make and distribute them. The participants—suppliers of capital, labor and raw materials—must all be compensated from the sale of the output. Further, the firm competes for the consumer’s dollar with other firms in the same and other industries. This process is “natural” in the sense that it occurs in all human societies as they develop.

A difficulty arises in the course of this development. Certain groups are likely to gain excessive economic power permitting them to obtain too large a share of the value created by firms. To illustrate, the economics of producing and distributing electric power are such that only one firm can efficiently serve a given community. As a result, the electric company could charge high prices and earn excessive profits. Society’s solution to this potential exploitation is rate regulation. Prices charged by electric companies and certain other monopolistic enterprises are controlled and held down to a level just sufficient to provide stockholders with a “fair” rate of return on their investment. The regulatory(调整的) process is simple in concept; but in practice, it is costly, difficult to operate, and in many ways arbitrary. It is a poor substitute for competition, but a substitute that is sometimes necessary.

The second problem in the economic development of society occurs when a limited number of firms serve a given market. If the firms compete with one another, no exploitation(剥削) occurs; however, if they conspire(共谋) with one another in setting prices, they may be able to obtain excessive profits. The antitrust laws(反托拉斯法) are designed to prevent such collusion(勾结), as well as to prevent the merging of competing firms whenever the effect of the merger would be to lessen competition substantially. Like direct regulation, the antitrust laws contain arbitrary elements and are costly to administer, but they, too, are necessary if economic justice, as defined by the body politic(国家), is to be preserved.

The third problem is that, under certain conditions, firms can exploit workers, so laws designed to equalize the bargaining power of firms and workers have been developed. These labor laws require firms to submit to collective bargaining and to refrain from(戒除) certain “unfair” practices.

The fourth problem by the economic system is that, in their production processes, firms may impose costs on society; for example, by dumping wastes into air or the water or by defacing(损伤外观) the earth, as in strip mining(露天采矿). If a steel mill creates polluted air, which requires people to paint their houses in three years instead of in five years or to have their clothes dry-cleaned(干洗) more frequently or to suffer lung illness, the mill is creating a cost to society in general, or a social cost. The steel company should be required to install pollution-control equipment or to pay fines equal to the social cost of the pollution; otherwise, the steel company is gaining at the expense of society, because the company is not paying its full social costs. Additionally, failure to shift social costs back onto the firm results in an economically inefficient allocation of resources between industries and firms. Currently some of the practices being applied to avoid this include the establishment of emissions limits both for manufacturing processes and for products that pollute (for example, autos), as well as the imposition of fines or outright (彻底的)closures of firms that do not meet these standards.

All the measures discussed above—utility regulation, antitrust laws, labor laws, and pollution control restrictions—are examples of actions taken by society to modify the behavior of business firms and to make this behavior more consistent with broad social goals. Since these social measures all constrain firms, the economy of the United States could be called a constrained –enterprise system as opposed to a free-enterprise system.

Unit 30 Something about Telephone

电话点滴

现在，电话已经成为世界上最普通的音频通讯工具，今天的电话较之当时贝尔发明的简陋装置，是无以伦比的精巧和有效，而且，今天使用电话的方式也是贝尔当年不可能预见的……

When imaginative scientists first suggested the possibility that one person could speak directly to another over a long distance, few people took them seriously. Among the few who did was a Scots-born(苏格兰出生的) American named Alexander Graham Bell(亚历山大?格拉海姆?贝尔，美国发明家), who was one of the first to develop a telephone in 1876. Now the most common means of voice communication in the world, the telephone of today, is infinitely more sophisticated and effective than the crude instrument developed by Bell, and it is being used in ways he could not possibly have foreseen.

One area that is rapidly expanded is communications service “on the move”. Because America is such a highly mobile society—a society on wheels—telephones in cars and trucks are becoming as essential as those in homes and offices. Industry officials have predicted that mobile communications service will soon be more competitive in many respects than the service provided by telephones that do not move.

Another area rapidly developing is overseas telephone service. In 1927, when overseas telephone service was inaugurated(开创) with a radio telephone call between New York and London, the occasion was heralded(宣布) as “thrilling”. Today, many telephone users regard international calls as routine, and overseas service, thanks largely to undersea cables(海底电缆) and communications satellites, has undergone extraordinary improvement. Transmission has been made clearer, charges have been greatly reduced and dependability has been improved. Overseas telephone service has now been extended to nearly 350 countries and areas throughout the world.

The introduction of direct distance dialing in 1951was one of the most significant developments in the effort to improve long-distance service. Direct distance dialing is not only fast and convenient for the caller, it has also enabled telephone companies to handle the extraordinary growth of telephone use that has occurred since the 1950s. between 1950 and 1973 the number of telephone in the United States tripled, with the addition of 90 million telephones. For the Bell Telephone System(贝尔电话公司) alone, long-distance calls in the same period have increased from 1.4 billion to 8.5 billion, and indications have shown that long-distance calls will continue to increase significantly in the years ahead. In 1972, 77 percent of the 8.5 billion long-distance calls were dialed by the customer.

Another very significant development in telephone use is in the area of data communications. Here is an example of how medical data are being transmitted. In a small town in the western part of the United States about 300 people gathered in the local school to undergo tests for lung diseases. The procedures followed marked a major advance in detecting diseases by providing almost instantaneous computer diagnosis over long-distance lines. First, technicians at the school used touch-tone telephones(按键式电话) to send vital statistics on the person being tested to the computer, which was located in a hospital 60 miles away. The individual then exhaled into a spirometer(肺活量计测仪), which measures volume and rate of air exhalation(呼气), and these measurements were automatically transmitted to the computer. The computer instantly calculated the results and within two seconds relayed them back to the testing center. Normally, it takes hours or even weeks to evaluate spirometer measurements. By utilizing a computer and data communications, however, the time lag is reduced to seconds. Moreover, people in a remote community are put within arm’s length of the most up-to-date medical facilities available.

For many people the most exciting development in recent years is picturephone service(可视电话业务). Picturephone services, which will become available commercially at the beginning of this century, is being used by large business corporation; but it will no doubt spread from the office to the home. It is already clear that the next best thing in telephone service is going to be picturephone call.

Possibly the most significant research now being conducted is in the use of the laser beam in telephone communications. This wonderful light, first produced by scientists in 1960, can beam continuously and with extraordinary intensity. Instead of using light to see by, telephone researchers are thinking of way to use light to communicate by. In other words, they are thinking of using light as radio waves to transmit telephone calls, television programs and data messages from one point to another, with the expansion of picturephone service and high-speed data communications between computers, present message-carrying capacities may soon become inadequate. If it turns out to be technically and economically sound, the laser might prove to be a major breakthrough in telephone communications.

Current research in telephone communications is so extensive and changes are coming about so rapidly that no one can predict with accuracy what the telephone of tomorrow will look like. But there is at least one prediction that can be made with assurance: there will be more and more telephones in the future, and the will be much better than present ones.

好长的文章啊,高手啊.

非常感谢楼主,辛苦了