专四dictation50篇

Town and Country Life in England

There is a big difference between town life and country life in England. In the country, everybody knows everybody else. They know what time you get up, what time you go to bed and what you have for dinner. If you want help, you will always get it and you will be glad to help others.

In a large town like London, however, it can sometimes happen that you have never seen your next door neighbor and you do not know his name or anything about him. People in London are often very lonely. This is because people go to different places in the evenings and at weekends. If you walk through the streets in the centre of London on Sunday, it is like a town without people. One is sorry for old people living on their own. They could die in their homes and would not be discovered for weeks or even months.

A Change in Women’s Life

The important change in women’s life-pattern has only recently begun to have its full effect on women’s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left schoo l at the first opportunity, and most of them took a full-time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school-leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women tend to marry younger, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards return to full-time or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.

A Popular Pastime of the English People

One of the best means of understanding the people of any nation is watching what the do with their non-working time.

Most English men, women and children love growing things, especially flowers. Visitors to England in spring, summer or autumn are likely to see gardens all they way along the railway lines. There are flowers at the airports and flowers in factory grounds, as well as in gardens along the roads. Each English town has at least one park with beautifully kept flower beds. Public buildings of every kind have brilliant window boxes and sometimes baskets of flowers are hanging on them.

But what the English enjoy most is growing things themselves. If it is impossible to have a garden, then a window box or something growing in a pot will do. Lookin g at each other’s gardens is a popular pastime with the English.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1. window box:窗台上的花盆箱

2.pastime 消遣，娱乐

British and American Police Officers

Real policemen, both in Britain and the U.S., hardly recognize any common points between their lives and what they se on TV—if they ever get home in time.

Some things are almost the same, of course, but the policemen do not think much of them much of them.

The first difference is that a policeman’s real life deals with the law. Most of w hat he learns is the law. He has to know actually what actions are against the law and what facts can be used to prove them in court. He has to know nearly as much law as a lawyer, and what’s more, he has to put it into practice on his feet, in the dark and, running down a narrow street after someone he wants to talk to.

Little of his time is spent in talking with beautiful girls or in bravely facing cruel criminals. He will spend most of his working life arranging millions of words on thousands of forms about hundreds of sad, ordinary people who are guilty--- or not of stupid, unimportant crimes.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1. think much of 重视，尊重

2. in court 在法庭上

3. criminal 罪犯，犯罪者

4. guilty 犯罪的，有罪的

Living Space

How much living space does a person need? What happens when his space needs are not met? Scientists are doing experiments on rats to try to determine the effects of overcrowded conditions on man. Recent studies have shown that the behavior of rats is greatly affected by space. If rats have enough living space, they eat well, sleep well and produce their young well. But if their living conditions become too crowded, their behavior and even their health change obviously. They can not sleep and eat well, and signs of fear and worry become clear. The more crowded they are, and more they tend to bite each other and even kill each other. Thus, for rats, populations and violence are directly related. Is this a natural law for human society as well? Is enough space not only satisfactory, but necessary for human survival? These are interesting questions.

The United Nations

In 1945, representatives of 50 nations met to plan this organization. It was called the United Nations. After the war, many more nations joined.

There are two major parts of the United Nations. One is called the General Assembly. In the General Assembly, every member nation is represented and has an equal vote.

The second part is called the Security Council. It has representatives of just 15 nations. Five nations are permanent members: the United States, Russia, France, Britain, and China. The 10 other members are elected every two years by the General Assembly. The major job of the Security Council is to keep peace in the world. If necessary, it can send troops from member nations to try to stop little wars before they turn into big ones. It is hard to get the nations of the Security Council to agree on when this is necessary. But they did vote to try to stop wars.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1. representative 代表

2. General Assembly 联合国大会

3. permanent 永久的，持久的

4. Security Council 联合国安全理事会

Plastic

We use plastic wrap to protect our foods. We put our garbage in plastic bags or plastic cans. We sit on plastic chairs, play with plastic toys, drink from plastic cups, and wash our hair with shampoo from plastic bottles!

Plastic does not grow in nature. It is made by mixing certain things together. We call it a produced or manufactured material. Plastic was first made in the 1860s from plants, such as wood and cotton. That plastic was soft and burned easily.

The first modern plastics were made in the 1930s. Most clear plastic starts out as thick, black oil. That plastic coating inside a pan begins as natural gas.

Over the years, hundreds of different plastics have been developed. Some are hard and strong. Some are soft and bendable. Some are clear. Some are many-colored. There is a plastic for almost every need. Scientists continue to experiment with plastics. They hope to find even ways to use them!

Display of Goods

Are supermarkets designed to persuade us to buy more?

Fresh fruit and vegetables are displayed near supermarket entrances. This gives the impression that only healthy food is sold in the shop. Basic foods that everyone buys, like sugar and tea, are not put near each other. They are kept in different aisles so customers are taken past other attractive foods before they find what they want. In this way, shoppers are encouraged to buy products that they do not really need.

Sweets are often placed at children’s eye level at the checkout. While parents are waiting to pay, children reach for the sweets and put them in the trolley.

More is bought from a fifteen-foot display of one type of product than from a ten-foot one. Customers also buy more when shelves are full than when they are half empty. They do not like to buy from shelves with few products on them because they feel there is something wrong with those products that are there.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1. aisle 走廊，过道

2. trolley 手推车

3. checkout 收款台

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Germany in 1879, His father owned a factory that made electrical devices. His mother enjoyed music and books. His parents were Jewish but they did not observe many of the reli gion’s rules. Albert was a quite child who spent much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read. When Albert was five years old, his father gave him a compass. The child was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle always pointed in the same direction—to be north.

He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move. Their answers about magnetism and gravity were difficult for the boy to understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something hidden had to be behind things.

Useful expressions and words:

1. device 装置，设备

leave to one’s own devices 听任某人自行其是，允许某人按自己的意愿做事

She left the child to her own devices for an hour in the afternoon.

她允许孩子在下午有一个小时的自由支配时间。

2. compass 指南针

beyond one’s compass某人力所不及

catch/fetch/take a compass兜圈子，绕道，拐弯抹角

keep sth within compass 把某种事物限制在适当的范围内

speak within compass 谨慎小心地说

within sb’s compass 某人力所能及的

within the compass of 在……范围内

3.magnetism 磁力

Private Cars

With the increase in the general standard of living, some ordinary Chinese families begin to afford a car. Yet opinions of the development of a private car vary from person to person. It gives a much greater degree of comfort and mobility. The owner of a car is no longer forced to reply on public transport, and hence no irritation caused by waiting for buses or taxis. However, others strongly object to developing private cars. They maintain that as more and more cars are produced and run in the street, a large volume of poisonous gas will be given off, polluting the atmosphere and causing actual harm to the health of people. Whether private cars should be developed in Chicago is a difficult question to answer, yet the desire for the comfort and independence a private car can bring will not be eliminated.\

A Henpecked Husband and His Wife

There was once a large, fat woman who had a small, thin husband. He had a job in a big company and was given his weekly wages every Friday evening. As soon as he got home on Fridays, his wife used to make him give her all his money, and then she used to give him back only enough to buy his lunch in his company every day.

One day, the small man came home very excited. He hurried into the living-room. His wife was listening to the radio and eating chocolates there.

“You will never guess what happened to me to day, dear.” he said.

He waited for a few seconds and then added, “I won ten thousand dollars on the lottery!”

“That is wonderful! ” said his wife delightedly. But then she pulled a long face and added angrily, “But how could you afford to buy the ticket?”

Useful Words and Expressions:

henpecked 怕老婆的，妻管严的

lottery 彩票a great lottery 虚无缥缈的事pull a long face 拉下脸来

have a face to say that脸皮厚得竟能讲出这种话

A Y oung Man’s Promise

One day, a young man was writing a letter to his girlfriend who lived just a few miles away in a nearby town. He was telling her how much he loved her and how wonderful he thought she was. The more he wrote the more poetic he became. Finally he said that in order to be with her, he would suffer the greatest difficulties, he would face the greatest dangers that anyone couldn’t imagine. In fact, to spend only one minute with her, he would swim across the widest river, he would enter the deepest forest, and he would fight against the fiercest animals with his bare hands. He finished the letter, signed his name and then suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to mention something quite important. So, in a postscript below his name, he added:

“By the way, I’ll be over to see you on Wednesday night, if it doesn’t rain.”

A Kind Neighbor

Mr. and Mrs. Jones’ apartment was full of luggage, packages, furniture and boxes. Both of them were very busy when they heard the doorbell ring. Mrs. Jones went to open it and she saw a middle-aged lady outside. The lady said she lived next door. Mrs. Jones invited her to come in and apologized because there was no place for her to sit. “Oh, that’s OK.” said the lady. “I just come to welcome to your new home. As you know, in some parts of this city, neighbors are not friendly at all. They are some apartment houses where people don’t know any of their neighbors, not even the ones next door. But in this building, everyone is very friendly with everyone else. We are a big happy family. I am sure you will be very happy here.” Mr. and Mrs. Jones said, “But madam, we are not new dwellers in this apartment. We’ve lived here for two years. We are moving out tomorrow.”

That Isn’t Our Fault

Mr. and Mrs. Williams got married when he was twenty-three, and she was twenty. Twenty-five years later, they had a big party, and a photographer came and took some photographs of them.

Then the photographer gave Mrs. Williams a card and said, “They’ll be ready next Wednesday. You can get them from studio.”

“No,” Mrs. Williams said, “please send them to us.”

The photographs arrived a week later, but Mrs. Williams was not happy when she saw them. She got into her car and drove to the photographer’s studio. She went inside and said angrily, “You took some photographs of me and my husband last week, but I’m not going to pay for them.”

“Oh, why not?” the photographer asked.

“Because my husband looks like a monkey,” Mrs. Williams said.

“Well,” the photographer answered, “that isn’t our fault. Why didn’t you think of that before you married him?”

A Guide’s Answer

In 1861, the Civil War started in the United States between the Northern and the Southern states. The war continued with great bitterness until 1865, when the Northerners were victorious. However, even today, many Southerners have not forgotten their defeat, or forgiven the Northerners.

A few years ago, a party of American tourists were going round one of the battlefields of the Civil War with a guide who came from one of the Southern states. At each place, the guide told the

tourists stirring stories about how a few Southern soldiers had conquered powerful forces of Northerners there.

At last, one of the tourists, a lady who came from the North, stopped the guide and said to him, “ But surely that the Northern army must have won at least one victory in the Civil War?”

“Not as long as I’m the guide here, madam,” answered the Southern guide.

A Qualified Pilot

The captain of a small ship had to go along a rocky coast, but he was unfamiliar with it, so he tried to find a qualified pilot to guide him. He went ashore in one of the small ports, and a local fisherman pretended that he was a pilot because he needed some money. The captain took him on board and asked him where to steer the ship.

After half an hour, the captain began to suspect that the fisherman did not really know what he was doing and where he was going.

“Are you sure you are a qualified pilot?” he asked.

“Oh, yes,” answered the fisherman. “I know every rock on this part of the coast.”

Suddenly there was a terrible crash from under the ship. At once the fisherman added, “And that’s one of them.”

Living Things React

You and all organisms live an environment. An environment is made up of everything that surrounds an organism. It can include the air, the water, the soil, and even other organisms.

An organism responds to changes in its environment. When an organism responds to a change, it reacts in certain ways. All living things respond in some way.

Have you ever noticed how plants and insects respond to light? Plants bend toward light. Insects fly toward light.

Living things also respond in other ways. The leaves on some trees respond to a change in season. In autumn, they change colors and then fall off the branches Animals also respond to a change in season. Squirrels save nuts for the winter. Bears sleep through the winter in a cave.

You respond to your environment in many ways, too. You may shiver if you are cold. What other ways do you respond to changes in your environment?

Flowering Plants

What are the parts of a flower?

Flowers can have male parts and female parts. The female parts make eggs that become seeds. The male parts make pollen. Pollen is a powdery material that is needed by the eggs to make seeds. To make seeds, pollen and eggs must come together. The wind, insects, and birds bring pollen to eggs. Many animals love flowers’ bright colors. They also like a sugary liquid in flowers. This is called nectar. While they drink nectar, pollen rubs off on their bodies. As they move, some of this pollen gets delivered to the female flower parts.

Over time, the female parts turn into fruits that contain seeds. Animals often eat the fruits and the seeds pass through their bodies as waste. The animals do no know they are working for the plants by planting seeds as they travel to different places!

Useful words and Expressions:

1.flowering 开花的

2.pollen 花粉

3.powdery 粉状的

4.sugar 含糖的，甜的

5.nectar花蜜，甘露

6.rub 磨擦

Finding the Direction and Location

How can you tell which direction? By day, look for the Sun. It is in the east in the morning and the west in the afternoon. At night, use the Big Dipper to help you find the North Star. It would be better to bring a compass because its needle always points north.

How do you know how far you have gone? You could count every step. Each step is about two feet. You’d better wear a pedometer which is a tool that counts steps. If you know where you started, which direction you are heading, and how far you have gone, you can use a good map to figure out exactly where you are.

Today there is a new way for travelers to figure out where they are. It is the GPS. It has 24 satellites that orbit the earth and constantly broadcast their positions. Someday you may carry a small receiver as you hike and use GPS to find out if you are there yet!

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.dipper北斗七星

https://www.360docs.net/doc/8a15012155.html,pass 罗盘

3.pedometer 步数计

4.GPS= Global Position System全球定位系统

5.orbit 轨道，绕……轨道而行

6.receiver 接收器

Waves

How does light get from the sun to the earth? How does music get from the stage to the audience? They move the same way-----in waves!

Light and sound are forms of energy. All waves carry energy, but they may carry it differently. Light and sound travel through different kinds of matter. For example, light waves cannot move through walls, but sound waves can. That is why you can hear people talking in another room even though you cannot see them. The energy of some waves is destructive. An earthquake produces seismic waves.

Catch a wave. Ask a friend to stand a few feet away from you. Stretch a spring between you. Shake the spring to transfer energy to it. What happens? The spring bounces up and down in waves. When the waves reach your friend, they bounce back to you!

Light waves travel 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second! They can also travel through a vacuum. That is why light from the sun and distant stars can travel through space to the earth!

Useful Words and Expressions;

1.destructive 破坏的

2.seismic地震的

3.vacuum真空

Soils

There are many different kinds of soils. Different soils have different types of rock and minerals in them. Some soils have more water in them than others. Some soils might have more plant and animal material in them, too.

Different kinds of soils are found in different parts of the world. There are several kinds of soils found in the United States. In some areas, the soil has a lot of clay. Other soils are very sandy. Loam is a kind of soil that has a good mixture of clay and sand.

In some places, soil layers are very thick. Lots of plants grow in places with a thick soil layer. In dry and windy places soil layers are much thinner. Layers of soil on mountains are thin because gravity pulls the soil downhill.

The type of soil in a particular place affects what kinds of plants can grow there.

Useful Words:

1.clay 黏土，泥土

2.loam 肥土

https://www.360docs.net/doc/8a15012155.html,yer 层

4.gravity 地心引力，重力

5.downhill 往下

Crisis

Life is a contest! Who will win? A bluebird and sparrow both compete for space to build their nests. A fast-growing maple tree and slower-growing dogwood compete for the sunlight they both need. Oil competes with coal and nuclear power as an energy source for electric power plants!

There is a problem. There is a limited amount of space for birds, sunlight for trees, and energy for people! If we do not cut back on our uses of some of our resources, someday they will be gone!

How can we use energy today and know we will have enough to go around in the future? We can choose alternate, or replacement, energy resources. It takes the earth millions of years to create coal, oil, and gas. They are nonrenewable resources.

Solar energy, wind energy and water energy are renewable resources. It takes the earth millions of years to create coal, oil, and gas. They are nonrenewable resources.

Solar energy, wind energy and water energy are renewable. What other ways can we conserve our sources? How can we make sure there is always enough to go around?

Useful words and expressions:

1.bluebird 蓝知更鸟

2.sparrow 麻雀

3.dogwood 山茱萸

4.power plant 发电厂，发电站

5.alternate 替换物

6.nonrenewable resources 不可再生资源conserve 保存，保藏

America’s Worst Surprise

December 7, 1941 was one of the worst days in American history. Nearly all Americans who are old enough to remember that day can still remember what they were doing at the moment they heard “the news”. The news was that America had been attacked!

Shortly before 2:00 P.M., a radio dispatch came into Washington from Honolulu, Hawaii. “Air Raid, Pearl Harbor— This is no drill.” Japanese planes had begun an attack on the largest

American military base in the Pacific. They first destroyed planes on the ground. Then they bombed the ships in the harbor.

No one had expected the attack. So no one was prepared for it. And it did not take long for Japanese to do their damage. When the smoke cleared, the Navy counted its losses. Eighteen ships had been sunk or badly damaged. Nearly 150 planes had been destroyed. More than 2,400 Americans had been killed and more than 1,200 wounded.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.dispatch 派遣，急件

2.air raid 空袭

3.drill 军事训练，操练

4.Pearl Harbor 珍珠港

Great Depression in the U.S.

In 1929, the bills started to come in. American industry had produced too many goods. Americans could not afford to buy all of them. So factories had to cut down on their production. Many workers lost their jobs. Investors tried to get their money back. But businesses did not have enough money to pay them. Banks tried to get their money back from investors. But the investors could not pay, either. Too many people owed money. And few of them could pay their bills.

During the next few years, business got worse and worse. By 1932, banks all over the country were closing.

People without money could not buy goods. So more businesses closed. More and more people lost their jobs. By 1932, more than 12 million Americans were jobless. Millions more were earning barely enough to live on. The country was in a great depression they had never experienced before.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.bill 帐单，票据

foot the bill付账，负责

2.cut down on 减少

3.depression 沮丧，萧条

Great Depression大萧条

A Place of Our Own

We are all usually very careful when we buy something for the house. Why? Because we have to live with it for a long time. We paint a room to make it brighter, so we choose the colors carefully.

We buy new curtains in order to match the newly decorated room, so they must be the right color. We move the furniture round so as to make more space—or we buy new furniture—and so on. It is an endless business.

Rich or poor, we take time to furnish a room. Perhaps some people buy furniture in order to impress their friends. But most of us just want to enjoy our surroundings. We want to live as comfortably as we can afford to. We spend a large part of our lives at home. We want to make a small corner in the world which we can recognize as our own.

Travel for Work

You can see them in every airport in the world. They are businessmen and women who have to travel for their work.

When they first applied for the job, they may have thought of good food and hotels, huge expense accounts and fashionable cities. Now they have to sit in airport lounges, tired and uncomfortable in their smart clothes, listening to the loudspeaker announce “The fight of Tokyo, or Berlin, or New York is delayed for another two hours.” Some people say to me, “How lucky you are to be able to travel abroad in your work! You can go sightseeing without paying any money by yourself!” They think that my job is like a continual holiday. It is not.

There are advantages, of course, and I do thin I am lucky, but only because I can go to places I would never visit if I was a tourist.

Intelligence

Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experience?

Strangely enough, the answer to these questions is yes. To some extent our intelligence is given us at birth, and no amount of special education can make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and varied surroundings. Thus, the limits of a person’s intelligence are fixed at birth, whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, held by most experts now, can be supported in a number of ways. As is easy to show that intelligence is to some extent something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people is, the closer they are likely to be in intelligence.

A Free Dress Every Week

The temptation to steal is greater than ever before especially in large shops and people are not so honest as they once were.

A detective recently watched a well-dressed woman who always went into a large store on Monday mornings. One Monday, there were fewer people in the shop than usual when the woman came in, so it was easier for the detective to watch her. The woman first bought a few small articles. After a little time, she chose one of the most expensive dresses in the shop and handed it to an assistant who wrapped it up for her as quickly as possible. The woman simply took the parcel and walked out of the shop without paying. When she was arrested, the detective found out that the shop assistant was her daughter. Believe it or not, the girl “gave” her mother a free dress every week!

Time

Time is tangible. One can gain time, spend time, waste time, save time, or even kill time. Common questions in American English reveal this concrete quality as though time were a possession. “Do you have any time?”, “Can you get some time for this?”, “How much free time do you have?” The treatment of time as a possession influences the way that time is carefully divided.

Generally, Americans are taught to do one thing at a time and may be uncomfortable when an activity is interrupted. In businesses, the careful scheduling of time and the separation of activities are common practices. Appointment calendars are printed with 15-,30-, and 60-minute time slots. The idea that “there is a time and place for everything” extends to American social life. Visitors

who drop by without prior notice may interrupt their host’s personal time. Thus, calling friends on the telephone before visiting them is generally preferred to visitors’ dropping by.

Useful words and expressions:

1.tangible 切实的

2.kill time 消磨时间

3.reveal 显示，揭示

4.scheduling 行程安排

5.slot 缝隙

6.drop by 随便访问

7.preferred 首选的

Cartoonists

In a good cartoon, the artist can tell in a few lines as much as a writer can tell in half a dozen paragraphs. The cartoonist not only tells a story but he also tries to persuade the reader to his way of thinking. He has great influence on public opinion. In a political campaign, he plays an important part. Controversial issues in Congress or at meetings of the United Nations may keep the cartoonist well-supplied with current materials.

A clever cartoonist may cause laughter because he often uses humor in his drawings. If he is sketching a famous person, he takes a prominent feature and exaggerates it. Cartoonists, for instance, like to lengthen an already long nose and to widen an already broad grin. This exaggeration of a person’s characteristics is called caricature. The artist uses such exaggeration to put his message across.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.cartoonist 漫画家

2.campaign 活动

3.controversial 争论的，争议的

4.sketch 素描

5.prominent 卓越的

6.exaggerate 夸张

7.lengthen 延长

8.grin 露齿笑

Water Pollution

Water is very important to us. Factories and plants need water for industrial uses and large pieces of farmland need it for irrigation. Without water to drink, people die in a short time.

Today most water sources are so dirty that people must purify water before drinking. Water becomes dirty in many ways: industrial pollution is one of them. With the development of industry, plants and factories pour tons of industrial wasters into rivers every day. The rivers have become seriously polluted, and the water is becoming unfit for drinking or irrigation. The same thing has also happened to our seas and oceans. So, the problem of water pollution is almost worldwide.

Scientists of many countries have done a lot of work to stop pollution. The polluted water in some places has become clean and drinkable again. Perhaps one day the people in all towns and cities will be drinking clean water. That day, we believe, is not very far off.

Making a Complaint

Complaining about faulty goods or bad services is never easy. But if something you have brought is faulty or does not do what was claimed for it, you are not asking for a favor to get it put right.

Complaints should be made to a responsible person. Go back to the shop where you bought the goods, taking with you any receipt you may have. In a small store the assistant may also be the owner so you can complain direct. In a chain store, ask the manager. If you telephone, ask the name of the person who handles your enquiry, otherwise you may never find out who dealt with the complaint later. If you do not want to do it in person, write a letter. Stick to the facts and keep a copy of what you write. At this stage you should give any receipt numbers, but you should not need to give receipts or other papers to prove you bought the article.

Where Do the British Live

Nearly everyone in Britain would like to own their own home and, whether they do or not, they are prepared to put time and money into decorating and furnishing it or even making structural alterations to it. Because of the climate and because of the expense involved in going out for the evening, the British spend a lot of time at home and a large part of their social life takes place there.

Young people tend to stay with their families longer these days as accommodation is expensive but, when they move away to a job or college, there are various options open to them. They can get lodgings with a landlady. This means that they rent a room in someone’s house and have breakfast with the family. They can also get a bed-sitting room, that is to say one self-contained room in which they can cook, live and sleep. Alternatively, they can share a rented flat or house with a group of young people, perhaps the most popular option of all.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.lodging 寄宿处

2.bedsit 卧室兼起居室

3.bed-sitting 卧室兼起居室的

4.self-contained 设备齐全的

Will Computers Replace Human Beings?

We are in the computer age today. The computers are working all kinds of wonders now. They are very useful in automatic control and data processing. At the same time, computers are finding their way into the home. They seem to be so clever and can solve such complicated problems that some people think sooner or later they will replace us.

But I do not think that there is such a possibility. My reason is very simple: computers are machines, not humans. And our tasks are far too various and complicated for any one single kind of machine to perform.

Probably the greatest difference between man and computer is that the former can do things of his own while the latter can do nothing without being programmed. In my opinion, computers will remain nothing but an extension of our human brains, no matter how clever and complicated they may become.

Soccer

Soccer has had a slow start in America. In fact, the majority of schools still have no official soccer teams or coaches. But the blossoming popularity of the game cannot be denied. Thanks to the efforts of some world-famous soccer stars, soccer is soon to have its place in American culture.

Although soccer has enjoyed decades of popularity elsewhere, it was literally ignored in America. Instead, a variation of the game called “football” was most popular in the U.S. and still is to this day. But the obvious advantages of playing soccer instead will soon win even the most avid football enthusiasts.

For one thing, soccer is a much safer game to play than football. No one deliberately tries to knock an opponent down in soccer. In fact, they players are discouraged from even touching each other.

Soccer is a game that requires skill and dexterity in controlling the ball. Since no one may use hands to do this, soccer players soon acquire incredible control of their heads, knees, and feet.

Useful Words and Expresisons:

1.slow start 缓慢起动

2.blossom 兴旺，发展

3.ignore 忽视

4.avid 渴望的

5.discourage from 劝阻

6.dexterity 灵巧，机敏

Artists

Every artist knows in his heart that he is saying something to the public. Not only does he want to say it well, but he wants it to be something which has not been said before.

What visual artists, like painters, want to say is easy to make out but difficult to explain, because painters translate their experiences into shapes and colors, not words. They seem to feel that a certain selection of shapes and colors, out of the countless billions of possible, is exceptionally interesting for them and worth showing to us.

Most artists take their shapes and colors from the world of nature and from human bodies in motion and response; their choices indicate that these aspects of the world are worth looking at, that they contain beautiful sights. Contemporary artists might say that they merely choose subjects that provide an interesting pattern, that there is nothing more in it. Yet even they do not choose entirely without reference to the character of their subjects.

Useful words and Expressions:

1.visual artist 视觉艺术家

2.selection 挑选，选择

3.exceptional 例外的，异常的

4.motion 运动，动作

5.indicate显示，象征

6.contemporary 当代的，同时代的

7.without reference to 不论，与……无关

Professioanl Sports in the U.S.

Professional sports are not only very popular in the United States, but also a big business. The most popular sports are baseball, football and basketball. Each sport has its own season and

individual teams have millions of supporters. Professional teams are named for the cities where they are located. For example, the Lakers are in Los Angeles. The strongest supporters of the Lakers are residents of Los Angeles and Southern California. When the Lakers play, many people in Los Angeles enthusiastically follow the game. When we mention “NBA”, almost every one knows it ahs some relationship with U.S. professional basketball. However, what does it really stand for? N.B.A is gaining new fans and supporters around the world. Basketball has been called the “national pastime”. However, football is the most popular professional sport in the U.S.. American football is different from international football, which Americans call “soccer”. Both games require strength and specialized skills.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.be named for 被指定为

2.be short for 是……的简称

3.stand for代表

“How to” Books

Books which give instructions on how to do things are popular in the United States today. Thousands of these “how to” books are available. In fact, there are about for thousand books with titles that begin with the words “how to’.

Many “how to” books give advice on careers. They tell you how to choose a career and how to succeed in it. Many of these books help people to use their free time better. Some people want book which will give them useful information about sports, hobbies and travel. Other people use their free time to make repairs and improvements on their homes. They prefer books which give step-by-step instructions on how to repair things like plumbing and electrical wiring or on how to redecorate or enlarge a house.

Why have “how to”books become so popular? Probably because life has become more complex. Today people have far more free to use, more choices to make, and more problems to solve, “how to” books help people to deal with modern life.

Useful words and Expressions:

1.step-by-step 按部就班的

2.redecorate 重新装饰，再装饰

https://www.360docs.net/doc/8a15012155.html,plex 复杂的，综合的

Don’t give up

If we would ever accomplish anything in life, let us not forget that we must persevere. If we would learn our lessons in school, we must be diligent and not give up whenever we come to anything difficult. We shall find many of our lessons very hard, but let us consider that the harder they are the better they will do to us if we will preserve and learn them thoroughly.

But there are some among us who are ready to give up when they come to a hard example in mathematics, and say, “I can’t do this.”They never will if they feel so. “I can’t”never does anything worthwhile, but “I’ll try” accomplishes wonders.

Let us remember that we shall meet with difficulties all through life. They are in the pathway of everyone. If we will only try and keep trying, we shall be sure to conquer and overcome very difficulty we meet.

How High Can You Jump?

Fleas trainers have observed a strange habit of fleas while training them.

Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it. The fleas will jump up and hit the top of the cardboard box over and over and over again. As you watch them jump and hit the lid, something very interesting becomes obvious. The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top.

When you take off the lid, the fleas continue to jump, but they will not jump out of the box. They will not jump out because they cannot jump out. Why? The reason is simple. They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high. Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high. Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that is all they can do!

Many times, people do the same thing. They restrict themselves and never reach their potential. Just like the fleas, they fail to jump higher, thinking they are doing al they can do. Useful Words and Expressions:

1.cardboard 纸板

2.lid 盖子

3.conditioned 有条件的，习惯于……的

4.restrict 限制，约束

be restricted within narrow limits 限于狭窄的范围内

be restricted in one’s movements 行动受限制

Apology Helps

It is never easy to admit you are in the wrong. Being human, we all need to know the art of apologizing. Look back with honesty and think how often you have judged roughly, you said unkind things, and pushed yourself ahead at the expense of a friend. Then count the occasions when you indicated clearly and truly that you were so sorry. A bit frightening, isn’t it? It is frightening, isn’t it? It is frightening because some deep wisdom in us knows that when even a small wrong has been committed, some mysterious moral feeling is disturbed; and it stays out of balance until fault is acknowledged and regret expressed.

A heartfelt apology can not only heal a damaged relationship but also make it stronger. If you can think of someone who deserves an apology from you, someone you have wronged, or judged too roughly, or just neglected, do something about it right now.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.push ahead 捉紧进行

2.at the expense of 在损害……的情况下

3.mysterious神秘的

4.moral 道德的

5.disturbed 扰乱的

6.stay out of 不参与……，置身于……之外

7.heartfelt 衷心的，真心真意的

8.roughly粗糙地，概略地

Sleep

Why is it so difficult to fall asleep when you are overtired? There is no one answer that applies to every individual. It is possible to feel “tired” physically and still be unable to fall asleep,

because while your body may be exhausted, you do not feel sleepy. It is not so easy to simply “turn off”.

Lack of sleep complicates matters even more. Experts say adults need at least seven to eight hours of sleep a night to function properly. When you get less sleep than that on consecutive three nights, you begin to accrue four “sleep debt”. As sleep debt increases your body experiences a stress response. Now a vicious cycle has been created: You experience the feeling of being more and more tired, but your body is increasingly stimulated. “Power sleeping”for more hours on weekends is only a temporary solution. There is no substitute for getting a good night’s sleep on a regular basis.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.overtire 使过度疲劳

2.apply to 将……应用于

3.consecutive 连续的，连贯的

4.accrue 自然增加，产生

5.vicious恶的

vicious cycle 恶性循环

6.stimulate 刺激，激励

7.substitute for 代替……，替换……

Our Concern

The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth’s vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. Only in the present century has one species of man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.

The rapidity of change follows the pace of man rather than the pace of nature. Radiation is now the unnatural creation of man’s tampering with the atom. The chemicals are the creations of man’s inventive mind, having no counterparts in nature.

We have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals into the hands of persons largely ignorant of their potentials for harm. We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. We have allowed these chemicals to be used with little or no advance investigation of their effect. Future generations are unlikely to forgive our lack of concern.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.interaction 交互作用，交感

2.vegetation 植被

3.mold 塑造，浇铸

4.species 种类

5.unnatural 不自然的

6.temper with 损害，影响

7.counterpart 配对物

8.poisonous 有毒的

9.potent 有力的，有效的

10.consent 同意，赞成

Gardening in America

Believe or not, 43,000,000 Americans are gardening. That is about one in six. Gardeners, of course, come in many varieties. Not surprisingly, most of them are people who live in the suburbs, and enjoy planting flowers, or maybe a small vegetables garden.

The average age of gardeners in America is about 45 years old; they usually fall somewhere in the middle class. But the fastest growing groups are city dwellers. Urban residents are finding ways of gardening even in their crowded areas. Many go to large public gardens, as a place designed by the city for garden, and you can actually ranch your own plot.

Still other people use their balconies or roof tops, wherever they can find the space to plant small patches of green.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.suburb 郊区

2.dweller 居民

3.ranch 经营牧场

4.balcony 阳台

5.patch小块地

The Influence of Life

In the early times when human beings hunted and gathered food, they were not in control of their environment. They could only interact with their surroundings as the other lower animals did.

When they learned to make fire, however, they became capable of altering their environment. To provide themselves with fuel, they cut down trees. They also burned clearings in forests to increase the growth of grass and to provide a greater grazing area for the wild animals that human beings fed upon. This development led to farming and the domestication of animals. Fire provided the means for cooking plants which had previously been inedible. Only when the process of meeting the basic need for food reached a certain level was it possible for humans to follow other pursuits such as setting up families, forming societies and founding cities.

Useful words and Expressions:

1.interact with 与……组合

2.clearing 空旷地

3.grazing 放牧，牧草

4.domestication 驯养，驯服

5.previously 先前，以前

6.inedible 不能吃的，不适于食用的

7.pursuit 追击

8.set up 设立

Automobiles

It is impossible to say that any one man invented the automobile. Many individuals living and working in different countries and at different times contributed to its development. Many of the discoveries that went into the creation of the automobile were small in themselves. But together they were important. Here are two examples.

“Carriage is running at a speed of 8 to 9 miles an hour.” It was almost unheard of in those days. According to automobile historians, this was the first practical use of mechanical power to

move a vehicle. After its first run, the machine reportedly burned up while the inventor and his friends were celebrating its success at a pub.

Henry Ford is considered the father of modern automobiles mass production. His famous Model-T car, because of its low price, made it possible to produce cars on a large scale and his efforts made it accessible to ordinary people.

Useful words and expressions:

1.reportedly 据传说，据传闻

2.mass production大规模生产

3.on a large scale 大规模地

4.accessible 易接近的，可到达的

accessible to 与……接近

House and Home

“House” and “home” are two words that have similar meanings.

“House” and “home” both refer to places where people live. However, there is a difference between them. “Home” is often referred to as the place that we live in with our families. Sadly, in our society, people can hardly distinguish a home from a house because they often see no difference between them. This confusion can be traced back to the indifference between family members. Therefore, we can say that love is an important factor in a home. A home is a shelter, not only for our bodies but also for our minds. Whenever we are depressed, we can go home for comfort. Everyone in the family will do his best to take care of each other and share their happiness as well as sorrow. Without love, a home is merely a house where loneliness is all that can be found. And a house can never be a home unless there is love.

Useful words and expressions:

1.refer to 提到

2.distinguish区别，辨别

3.confusion 混乱，混淆

4.trace back 追溯到

5.indifference 不关心

6.depressed 沮丧的

Population Growth

It is well-known that there has been a drastic increase in world population. But it is probably les well-known that the extinction rate of wildlife species is experiencing a parallel trend.

Take the United States for instance. In 1990, U.S. population reached an unprecedented level of 250 million, which is approximately 250 times of that of 1800. On the other hand, wildlife species are disappearing from the country at an alarming rate. By 1990, about 70 wildlife species would never be seen in U.S. We are fully justified in declaring that the explosive population growth has had an adverse effect on the survival of wildlife species and will be a constant threat to the wildlife resources if no immediate actions are taken.

Nothing has ever equaled the magnitude and speed with which the human species is altering the physical and chemical world. It has been demolishing the environment we are living in. Useful words and expressions:

1.drastic 激烈的

2.parallel 平行的

3.trend 倾向

4.unprecedented 空前的

5.magnitude 大小，数量

6.alter 改变

7.demolish 毁坏

Natural Resources

Through the changes in the ways of making a living in a family over several generations, the cartoon aims at sounding a warning against man’s wasteful use of natural resources and emphasizing the urgent need to preserve these resources.

Ever since man appeared on the earth, man’s survival has been heavily dependent on nature. Almost everything we use in our everyday life comes from nature, ranging from the food we eat, the water we drink, to the wood which is turned into furniture. With the development of technology and population growth, the amount and range of materials used has increased at an alarming rate.

However, natural resources are not inexhaustible. Some reserves are already on the brink of exhaustion and there is no hope of replacing them. The widespread water shortage is an example in point. If man continued to squander natural resources with no thought for the future, the whole world would be in a mess.

Useful Words and Expressions:

1.make a living 谋生

2.aim at 瞄准

3.aim high 胸怀大志

4.alarming使人惊动的

5.inexhaustible 无穷无尽的

6.squander 浪费

7.be in a mess 乱七八糟

Reading

Nowadays few of us read books after we leave school.

This is rather disturbing, for one should know that books are no less necessary to one’s mental life than fresh air is to one’s physical life. From good reading we can derive companionship, experience and instruction. A good book is our faithful friend. It can increase our contentment when we are cheerful and happy, and lessen our pain when we are sad or lonely. Books can also offer us a wide range of experience. Few of us can travel far from home or live long over 100, but all of us can live many lives through the pages of books. What’s more, reading books can increase our intellectual ability, broaden our minds and make us wise.

With the coming of TV, books are no longer read as widely as they once were. However, nothing can replace the role that books play in our lives.

Useful words and expressions:

1.leave school 离校，中学毕业

2.disturbing 烦扰的

3.mental 精神的

4.derive 得到

https://www.360docs.net/doc/8a15012155.html,panionship 伴侣

6.intellectual 智力的