2015年 河海大学研究生英语一 Unit 11 The Iks
Unit 11 The IksThe small tribe of Iks, formerly nomadic hunters and gatherers in the mountain valleys of northern Uganda, have become celebrities, literary symbols for the ultimate fate of disheartened, heartless mankind at large. Two disastrously conclusive things happened to them: the government decided to have a national park, so they were compelled by law to give up hunting in the valleys and become farmers on poor hillside soil, and then they were visited for two years by an anthropologist who detested them and wrote a book about them.小部落伊克人，曾经在乌干达北部山谷里过着狩猎和采集的游牧民族生活，已变成名人，总体来说，成了最终命运沮丧的、无情的人的人文象征。
两件具有灾难性、决定性意义的事情发生在他们身上。
政府决定建一座国家公园，所以他们依法被迫放弃在山谷里的狩猎生活，而变成贫瘠的山坡地里的农民。
之后，一个憎恶他们的人类学家访问了他们两年，并写了一本关于他们的书。
The message of the book is that the Iks have transformed themselves into an irreversibly disagreeable collection of unattached, brutish creatures, totally selfish and loveless, in response to the dismantling of their traditional culture. Moreover, this is what the rest of us are like in our inner selves, and we will all turn into Iks when the structure of our society comes all unhinged.书的主旨是说，伊克人已经将自己变成了无药可救的不友善的人渣，是独立的、野兽般的生物，完全的自私无情。
这是对他们分崩离析的传统文化所做出的反应。
此外，这也是我们内在本性的模样。
当我们的社会结构全部瓦解时，我们都将变成伊克人。
The argument rests, of course, on certain assumptions about the core of human beings, and is necessarily speculative. You have to agree in advance that man is fundamentally a bad lot , out for himself alone , displaying such graces as affection and compassion only as learned habits . If you take this view, the story of the Iks can be used to confirm it. These people seem to be living together, clustered in small, dense villages, but they are really solitary, unrelated individuals with no evident use for each other. They talk, but only to make ill-tempered demands and cold refusals. They share nothing. They never sing. They turn the children out to forage as soon as they can walk, and desert the elders to starve whenever they can, and the foraging children snatch food from the mouths of the helpless elders. It is a mean society.论点当然是建立在对人性的必要的推测性假设的基础上。
首先，你得同意人性本恶，所表现出的喜爱和同情的优雅，仅仅是学到的习性，并非与生俱来。
如果你持此观点，伊克人的故事就可以用来佐证。
这些人表面上生活在一起，群居在小而密集的村庄，但是他们真的是独立的、没有关联的、对别人毫无明显作用的个人。
他们聊天，但仅仅是提出坏脾气的要求，做出冷漠的拒绝。
他们毫无分享，从不唱歌。
他们将刚会走路的孩子赶出去寻找食物，将老人抛弃任由其饿死。
觅食的孩子从无助的老者嘴下抢夺食物。
这是个卑鄙自私的社会。
They breed without love or even casual regard. They defecate on each other’s doorsteps. They watch their neighbors for signs of misfortune, and only then do they laugh. In the book they do a lot of laughing, having so much bad luck. Several times they even laughed at the anthropologist, who found this especially repellent (onesenses, between the lines, that the scholar is not himself the world’s luckiest man). Worse, they took him into the family, snatched his food, defecated on his doorstep, and hooted dislike at him. They gave him two bad years.他们对待老人孩子没有爱，甚至是粗疏的关心；他们在别人家的门口台阶上排泄；他们仅仅会在看到邻居遭难时才会发笑。
在书中，他们时常发笑，因为时常倒霉。
有时他们甚至嘲笑这位人类学家，这让他感到尤其的反感（从字里行间可以感觉到，学者在这个世界并不是他想象中的最幸运的人）。
更为糟糕的是，他们把他带回家中，抢他的食物，在他的家门口台阶上排泄，奚落厌恶他。
他们折磨了他两年。
It is a depressing book. If , as he suggests , there is only Ikness at the center of each of us , our sole hope for hanging on to the name of humanity will be in endlessly mending the structure of our society , and it is changing so quickly and completely that we may never find the threads in time. Meanwhile, left to ourselves alone, solitary, we will become the same joyless, zestless, untouching lone animals.这是一本令人沮丧的书。
如果像他所说，我们每个人心中都只有像伊克人那样的特性，那么我们维系人性之名的唯一希望就是不断地修补我们的社会结构。
而这个社会结构变化得如此之快，如此之彻底，结果我们永远也不会及时找到修补的手段。
如果仅剩我们自己，我们也将变成没有欢乐的，没有热情的，无动于衷的孤独生物。
But this may be too narrow a view. For one thing, the Iks are extraordinary. They are absolutely astonishing, in fact. The anthropologist has never seen people like them anywhere, nor have I. You’d think, if they were simply examples of the common essence of mankind, they’d seem more recognizable. Instead, they are bizarre, anomalous. I have known my share of peculiar , difficult , nervous , grabby people , but I’ve never encountered any genuinely , consistently detestable human beings in all my life . The Iks sounds more like abnormalities, maladies.这也许是一种偏见。
首先，伊克人是例外的，事实上绝对令人震惊。
人类学家从来没有在其他任何地方见过像他们这样的人，我也没有。
你想，如果他们代表了人类的共同本质，他们似乎就更容易被辨认出来。
然而他们是怪异的，例外的。
对于个性独特的，难以相处的，神经质的，贪婪的人，我已经够了解的了。
但在我一生中，也从没遇到过真正的至始至终令人憎恶的人。
伊克人听上去更像是不正常的，有病的人。
I cannot accept it. I do not believe that the Iks are representative of isolated, revealed man, unobscured by social habits. I believe their behavior is something extra, something laid on. This unremitting, compulsive repellence is a kind of complicated ritual. They must have learned to act this way, they copied it, somehow.我不同意这个观点。
2015年河海大学研究生英语一Unit1GhostsforTea(精)
Unit 1 Ghosts for T ea' Ten pence for a view over the bay' . said the old man with the telescope.'Lovely clear morning. Have a look at the old lighthouse and the remains of the great shipwreck of 1935.'“十便士看海湾风光。
”那个带着望远镜的老头说道。
“多么晴朗美丽的早晨。
来看看那古老的灯塔和1935年大海难的遗迹吧!”Ten pence was sheer robbery, but the view was certainly magnificent.十便士是纯粹的抢劫,可是海湾的景色确实壮丽。
Cliffs stretched into the distance, sparkling waves whipped by the wind were unr olling on to the beach, and a few yachts, with creamy-white sails, were curving and do dging gracefully on the sea . Just below, a flock of seagulls were screaming at one ano ther as they twisted and glided over the water. A mile out to sea, the old lighthouse sto od on a stone platform on the rocks, which were being greedily licked by the waves. In no way indeed did I grudge my money. As I directed the telescope towards the light house, the man beside me tapped my wrist.峭壁伸展向远处,海风激起的波浪闪耀着铺展在沙滩上,海面上几艘游艇伴着乳白色风帆优雅地弯成弧形避开。
河海大学研究生英语课文及翻译(重点单词突出显示,特殊单词有注释)Unit 1 Ghosts for Tea
' Ten pence for a view over the bay' . said the old man with the telescope.'Lovely clear morning. Have a look at the old lighthouse and the remains of the great shipwreck o f 1935.'十便士看一次海湾风光，”那个带着一架望远镜的老头说道：“多么晴朗美丽的早晨。
请来看看那古老的灯塔和1935年失事的大轮船残骸吧。
”Ten pence was sheer robbery, but the view was certainly magnificent. 要十便士简直是敲诈勒索，可是海湾的景色确实壮丽。
Cliffs stretched into the distance, sparkling waves whipped by the wind were unrolling on to the b each, and a few yachts, with creamy-white sails, were curving and dodging gracefully on the sea . Just below, a flock of seagulls were screaming at one another as they twisted and glided over the water. A mile out to sea, the old lighthouse stood on a stone platform on the rocks, which were b eing greedily licked by the waves. In no way indeed did I grudge my money. As I directed the teles cope towards the lighthouse, the man beside me tapped my wrist.峭壁向远方伸展，海风激起的阵阵波浪泛着白花，冲上海滩。
河海研一英语期末复习笔记(研究生英语视听说)分析解析
河海大学2015年1月份研究生英语一试卷结构一、听力20分（10+3+3+4）10条短对话+3篇小短文；听力用书原文，答案选项会乱序，有篇小短文的选项内容可能会变动，就比如这次的一篇关于熊猫的就变了，本来“吃得又慢又多”改成“吃得又快又多”，但仔细分析下选项还是可以判断出正确选项的。
二、词汇10分（5+5）10题填空+10题划线同义词；课后练习原题。
三、完型15分15个填空；这次是来自Unit 6 How to Read Body Language段落节选句子拼在一起；还有部分也出现在词汇练习里面。
四、阅读20分（5×4）2篇课后阅读原文原题（P27 passage2，P58 passage 1）+2篇课外阅读五、翻译20分（10+10）第一道英译汉：来自Unit 5 Take a Lesson from the Economists 段落节选句子拼成一段Economics is the dismal science: so say the large number of people who heap scorn on the intellectural merits of the discipline.（第一段）Due to the general measurement difficulties, as well as unforeseen events such as wars or natural disasters, economic forecasts are almost always wrong, sometimes by wide margins. （第三段）But the economists have been able to use the vagueness with which their subject is afflicted to their advantage. （第五段）（此处由机器翻译，你们自己尝试翻译下）经济学是沉闷的科学:所以说,大量的人嗤之以鼻的方式的优点的纪律。
河海大学研究生英语一文章翻译(Unit11-20)
Unit 11 The IksIks 小部落从前是游牧的猎人，聚居在乌干达北部的山谷中，现在这个部落变得很有名，整体上是灰心沮丧的，残忍冷酷的人类的终极命运的文学象征。
两件确实是灾难的事发生在他们身上：政府决定拥有一个国家公园，所以他们被法律迫使放弃山谷中的打猎生活，在贫瘠的山坡的土壤上变成农民，然后一个讨厌他们，研究他们两年的人类学家写了一本关于他们的书。
这本书的主题是：由于传统文化的废除，IKs变成一群彼此毫无关系，残酷无情，而又绝对令人讨厌的人，他们完全的自私和冷酷。
此外，这些特征正像我们内心的自己，当我们的社会结构完全错乱时，我们也将全部变成Iks。
这篇论文依据某种关于人类本质的设想，这种设想必然是推测而来的。
你不得不预先同意人类从本质上讲是坏的，完全为了他自己，展现出来的例如爱和同情这样的美德仅仅是后天学到的习惯。
如果你采纳这个观点，Iks人的故事便可以证实它。
这些人似乎是一直生活在一起，聚居在拥挤的小村庄，但是他们都是一群真正的独居的无关联的个体，彼此间没有明显的好处。
他们说话，但是只是做一些坏脾气的要求和冷漠的拒绝。
他们不分享。
他们从不唱歌。
他们的孩子一能走路就被打发出去寻找食物，只要有可能他们便抛弃那些老人，使他们饿死，那些寻找食物的孩子从无助的老人口中抢夺食物。
它是一个不友好的社会。
他们养育子女，但是不是出于爱，甚至也不是出于偶尔的关心。
他们在彼此的台阶上随地大小便。
他们观察他们的邻居，以等待不幸的降临，而且只有那时他们才大笑。
在书中，他们经常笑，因为有太多厄运。
好几次，他们甚至嘲笑人类学家，使人类学家发现这种嘲笑尤其令人反感（读者在字里行间发现，学者本身不是这世界上最幸运的人）。
更糟糕的是，他们把他带到家中，抢夺他的食物，在他的台阶上大小便，并且呵斥人类学家。
他们给他糟糕的两年。
它是一本令人沮丧的书。
如果，正像他建议的那样，在我们每个人的心中只有IK人的特性，我们唯一的维系人性的希望，将是不断地修补我们社会的结构，然而我们的社会结构变得如此之快，如此之完全，以至于我们不能及时找到修补社会的方法。
2015年 河海大学研究生英语一 Unit 11 The Iks
Unit 11 The IksThe small tribe of Iks, formerly nomadic hunters and gatherers in the mountain valleys of northern Uganda, have become celebrities, literary symbols for the ultimate fate of disheartened, heartless mankind at large. Two disastrously conclusive things happened to them: the government decided to have a national park, so they were compelled by law to give up hunting in the valleys and become farmers on poor hillside soil, and then they were visited for two years by an anthropologist who detested them and wrote a book about them.小部落伊克人，曾经在乌干达北部山谷里过着狩猎和采集的游牧民族生活，已变成名人，总体来说，成了最终命运沮丧的、无情的人的人文象征。
两件具有灾难性、决定性意义的事情发生在他们身上。
政府决定建一座国家公园，所以他们依法被迫放弃在山谷里的狩猎生活，而变成贫瘠的山坡地里的农民。
之后，一个憎恶他们的人类学家访问了他们两年，并写了一本关于他们的书。
The message of the book is that the Iks have transformed themselves into an irreversibly disagreeable collection of unattached, brutish creatures, totally selfish and loveless, in response to the dismantling of their traditional culture. Moreover, this is what the rest of us are like in our inner selves, and we will all turn into Iks when the structure of our society comes all unhinged.书的主旨是说，伊克人已经将自己变成了无药可救的不友善的人渣，是独立的、野兽般的生物，完全的自私无情。
2015年--河海大学研究生英语一-Unit-16---The-Role-of-Science-Fiction
Unit 16 The Role of Science FictionThe year 1972 was marked by this publication of a controversial book. The Limits to Growth. This study of the world’s future, done by a team of MIT scientists with the aid of computer “models” of the future of our society, forecast a planetwide disaster unless humankind sharply limits its population growth and consumption of natural resources.1972年为世人所瞩目的一件事就是出版了一本颇有争议的书——《增长的极限》。
这一有关世界前景的研究，是由麻省理工学院一组科学家借助模拟未来社会的电脑“模型”进行的，预言了人类若不大幅度限制人口增长和自然资源消耗，就会出现全球性的灾难。
Most people were caught by surprise when the book came out. Many refused to believe that disaster is possible, probable, inevitable---if we don’t change our mode of running Spaceship Earth. But science fiction people were neither surprised nor outraged. The study was really old news to them. They’d been making their own “models” of tomorrow and testing them all their lives.该书问世时大多数人吃了一惊。
河海大学研究生英语教程第五版U1-U20重点课文中英文对照
Unit 1Ghosts for Tea1 “Ten pence for a view over the bay”，said the old man with the telescope。
“Lovely clear morning。
Have a look at the old lighthouse and the remains of the great shipwreck of 1935。
”“十便士看一次海湾风光，"那个带着一架望远镜的老头说道。
“多么晴朗美丽的早晨。
请来看看那古老的灯塔和1935年失事的大轮船残骸吧。
”2 Ten pence was sheer robbery，but the view was certainly magnificent。
要十便士简直是敲诈勒索,可是海湾的景色确实壮丽.3 Cliffs stretched into the distance, sparkling waves whipped by the wind were unrolling on to the beach，and a few yachts, with creamy-white sails, were curving and dodging gracefully on the sea。
Just below，a flock of seagulls were screaming at one another as they twisted and glided over the water。
A mile out to sea，the old lighthouse stood on a stone platform on the rocks, which were being greedily licked by the waves. In no way indeed did I grudge my money。
2015年 河海大学研究生英语一 Unit 19 The Essayist
Unit 19 The EssayistThe essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who take bird walks enjoy theirs. Each new excursion of the essayist, each new “attempt”, differs from the last and takes him into new country. This delights him. Only a person who is congenitally self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays.散文家是一位自我解脱的人，靠一种幼稚的信念支撑着，他总认为自己想到的一切，自己遭遇的一切，是大家都感兴趣的。
他是一个充分欣赏自己工作的人，就像遛鸟的人欣赏他们的工作那样。
散文家的每一次新的游览，每一次新的“尝试”，都和前一次不同，而且总把他带进新的国度里去。
这使他很快慰。
只有生来以自我为中心的人才会厚颜无耻、持之以恒地去写散文。
There are as many kinds of essays as there are human attitudes or poses, as many essay flavors as there are Howard Johnson ice creams. The essayist arises in the morning and, if he has work to do, selects his garb from an unusually extensive wardrobe: he can pull on any sort of shirt, be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter--philosopher, scold, jester, raconteur, confidant, pundit, devil’s advocate, enthusiast. I like the essay, have always liked it, and even as a child was at work, attempting to inflict my young thoughts and experiences on others by putting them on paper. I early broke into print in the pages of St.Nicholas. I tend still to fall back on the essay form ( or lack of form) when an idea strikes me, but I am not fooled about the place of the essay in twentieth-century American letters--it stands a short distance down the line. The essayist, unlike the novelist, the poet, and the playwright, must be content in his self-imposed role of second-class citizen. A writer who has his sights trained on the Nobel Prize or other earthly triumphs had best write a novel, a poem, or a play, and leave the essay to ramble about, content with living a free life and enjoying the satisfactions of a somewhat undisciplined existence. (Dr. Johnson called the essay “an irregular, undigested piece”; this happy practitioner has no wish to quarrel with the good doctor’s characterization.散文种类很多，犹如人的姿态，而散文风格韵味之多则犹如霍华德•约翰逊的冰淇淋。
2015年 河海大学研究生英语一 Unit 12 Thanksgiving
Unit 12 ThanksgivingSoon they will be together again, all the people who travel between their own lives and each other’s. The package tour of the season will lure them this week to the family table.很快，所有在人生路途中漂泊的人们将相聚一堂。
本周，回家是他们唯一能做的事，吸引着他们聚在家庭餐桌前。
By Thursday, feast day, family day, Thanksgiving day, Americans who value individualism like no other people will collect around a million tables in a ritual of belonging.在周四，宴会日，家庭日，感恩节这天，最崇尚个人主义的美国人将以一种归属的仪式，聚集在百万张餐桌前。
They will assemble their families the way they assemble dinner: each one bearing a personality as different as cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. For one dinner they will cook for each other, fuss for each other, feed each other and argue with each other.家人聚在一起，就像他们张罗的晚餐一样：每个人有着不同的个性，就像蔓越橘沙拉不同于南瓜饼一样。
晚餐中，他们煮给彼此吃，相互抱怨，相互喂食，相互争论。
They will nod at their common heritage, the craziness and caring of other generations. They will measure their common legacy… the children.对于共同传统和对其他几代人的狂热和关爱，他们都很认同。
河海大学 研究生英语阅读理解
Unit 11Passage OneNow custom has not been commonly regarded as a subject of any great importance. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to, be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behavior at its most commonplace. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behavior more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief and the very great varieties it may manifest.No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mothertongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the language of his family. When one seriously studies social orders that have had the opportunity to develop independently, the figure becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and formost an adjustment to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities.Comprehension Questions1. The author thinks the reason why custom has been ignored in the academic world is that.A.custom reveals only the superficial nature of human behaviorB.the study of social orders can replace the study of customC.people are still not aware of the important role that custom plays in forming our worldoutlookD.custom has little to do with our ways of thinking2. Which of the following is true according to John Dewey?A.An individual can exercise very little influence on the cultural tradition into which he isborn.B.Custom is the direct result of the philosophical probings of a group of people.C.An individual is strongly influenced by the cultural tradition even before he is born.D.Custom represents the collective wisdom which benefits the individual.3. The word "custom" in this passage most probably means .A.the concept of the true and the false of a societyB.the independently developed social ordersC.the adjustment of the individual to the new social environmentD.the patterns and standards of behavior of community4. According to the passage, a person's life, from his birth to his death, .A.is constantly shaping the cultural traditions of his peopleB.is predominated by traditional customC.is continually influenced by the habits of other communitiesD.is continually influenced by the people around him5. The author's purpose in writing this passage is .A.to urge individuals to follow traditional customsB.to stress the strong influence of customs on an individualC.to examine the interaction of man and social customsD.to show man's adjustment to traditional customsPassage TwoThrough human history, weather has altered the march of events and caused some mighty catastrophes. Since Columbus did not know where he was going or where he had arrived when he got there, the winds truly deserved nearly as much credit as he for the discovery of America. Ugly westerlies helped turn the 1588 Spanish Armada away from England in a limping panic. Napoleon was done in twice by weather: once by the snow and cold that forced his fearful retreat from Moscow, later by the rain that bedeviled him at Waterloo and caused Victor Hugo to write: " A few drops of water--- an unseasonable cloud crossing the sky, sufficed for the overthrow of a world. " In 1944 the Allied invasion of Normandy was made possible by a narrow interval of reasonably good weather between the bad. It was so narrow, in fact that Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower later expressed gratitude to " the gods of war".Every year brings fresh reminders of the weather's power over human life and events in the form of horrifying tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. These leave behind forgettable statistics and unforgettable images of devastated towns and battered humanity that can only humble people in the face of such wrath. Farmers often suffer the most , from the drought and plagues of biblical times to the hailstorms or quick freezes that even today can wipe out whole crops in minutes, Icy assaults serve as reminders of the inescapable vulnerability of life and social well-being to the whims of the weather. And history is packed with reminders of far worse. The weather, ample, provoked a major social dislocation in the United States in the 1930's when it turned much of the Southwest into the Dust Bowl.Comprehension Questions1.According to the author, Columbus .A.did not discover AmericaB.stole the credit for the discovery 0f America from someone elseC.dose not deserve to be known as the man who discovered AmericaD.was not aware he had discovered America2. According to the passage, what helped the Allies succeed in the Normandy Invations in 1944?A. A spell of bad weatherB. A short period of fairly good weather.C.Good weather followed by bad weather.D.The excellent weather conditions.3. The best title for the first paragraph would be .A.The Development of History up to Modern TimesB.The Importance of Weather for the Progress of Events in HistoryC.The Way Fate Influences the Outcome of Events in HistoryD.Success in All Past Undertakings Depended on the Weather4. In the second paragraph, weather is seen as .A.an impulsive and unpredictable forceB.man's benefactorC.man's chief enemyD. a powerful destroyers of human life and property5. It can be inferred from the passage that weather brings .A.only benefits to manB.only disadvantages to manC.both benefits and disadvantages to manD.nothing but incovenience to manUnit 12Passage OneMaterial culture refers to the touchable, material "things" —physical objects that can be seen, held, felt, used—that a culture produces. Examining a culture's tools and technology can tell us about the group's history and ways of life. Similarly, research into the material culture of music can help us to understand the music-culture. The most vivid body of "things" in it, of course, are musical instruments. We cannot hear for ourselves the actual sound of any musical performance before the 1870s when the phonograph was invented, so we rely on instruments for important information about music-cultures in the remote past and their development. Here we have two kinds of evidence instruments well preserved and instruments pictured in art. Through the study of instruments, as well as paintings, written documents, and so on, we can explore the movement of music from the Near East to China over a thousand years ago, or we can outline the spread of Near Eastern influence to Europe that resulted in the development of most of the instruments on the symphony orchestra.Sheet music or printed music, too is material culture. Scholars once defined folk music-cultures as those in which people learn and sing music by ear rather than from print, but research shows mutual influence among oral and written sources during the past few centuries in Europe, Britain, and America, printed versions limit variety because they tend to standardize any song, yet they stimulate people to create new and different song. Besides, the ability to read music notation has a far-reaching effect on musicians and, when it becomes widespread, on the music-culture as whole.One more important part for music's material culture should be singled out: the influence of the electronic media—radio, record player, tape recorder, television and videocassette, with the future promising talking and singing computers and other developments. This is all part of the"information revolution," a twentieth-century phenomenon as important as the industrial revolution was in the nineteenth. These electronic media are not just limited to modern nations; they have affected music-cultures all over the globe.Comprehension Questions1.Research into the material culture of a nation is of great importance because .A.it helps produce new cultural tools and technologyB.it can reflect the development of the nationC.it helps understand the nation's past and presentD.it can demonstrate the nation's civilization2. It can be learned from this passage that .A.the existence of the symphony was attributed to the spread of Near Eastern andChinese music.B.Near Eastern music had an influence on the development of the instruments inthe symphony orchestraC.the development of the symphony shows the mutual influence of Eastern andWestern musicD.the musical instruments in the symphony orchestra were developed on the basisof Near Eastern music3. According to the author, music notation is important because .A.it has a great effect on the music-culture as more and more people are able toread itB.it tends to standardize folk songs when it is used by folk musiciansC.it is the printed version of standardized versions of songsD.it encourages people to popularize printed versions of songs4. It can be concluded from the passage that the introduction of electronic media into the world of music .A.has brought about an information revolutionB.has speeded up the arrival of a new generation of computesC.has given rise to new forms of music cultureD.has led to the transformation of traditional musical instruments5.which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?A.Musical instruments developed through the years will sooner or later be replacedby computers.B.Music cannot be passed on to future generation unless it is recorded.C.Folk songs cannot be spread far unless they are printed on music sheets.D.The development of music culture is highly dependent on its material aspect.Passage TwoReading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while during the 15th century the term "reading" undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during the 19th century did silent reading become commonplace.One should be wary, however, of assuming that silent reading came about simply becausereading aloud is a distraction to others. Examination of factors related to the historical development of silent reading reveals that it became the usual mode of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the taks themselves changed in character.The last century saw a steady gradual increase in literacy, and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, so the number of potential listeners declined, and there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the flourishing of reading as a private activity in public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices, where reading aloud would cause distraction to other readers.Towards the end of the century there was still considerable argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully, and over whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its virtues, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and periodicals for a specialised readership on the otherBy the end of the century students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to books and use skills in reading them which were inappropriate, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural, and technological changes in the century had greatly altered what term "reading" implied.Comprehension Questions1. Reading aloud was common before 19th century because .a. silent reading had not been discovered.b. there were few places available for private readingc. few people could read for themselvesd. people relied on reading for entertainment2. The development of silent reading during the 19th century indicated .a. a change in the status of literate peopleb. a change in the nature of readingc. an incerase iri the number of booksd. an increase in the average age of readers3. Educationalists are still arguing about .a. the importance of silent readingb. the amount of information yielded by books and newspapers.c. the effects of reading on intelligenced. the value of different types of reading material4. The emergence of the mass media and specialised periodicals showed that .a. standards of literacy had declinedb.readers' interests had diversifiedc.printing techniques had improvedcationalists' attitudes had changed5.It can be inferred from the passage that the writer is attempting to .a. explain how present-day reading habits developedb. change people's attitudes to readingc. show how reading methods have improvedd. encourage the growth of readingUnit 13Passage OneThree English dictionaries published recently all lay claim to possessing a "new" feature, the BBC English Dictionary contains background information on 1000 people and places prominent in the news since 1988; the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: Encyclopedic Edition is the OALD plus encyclopedic entries; the Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture is the LDOCE plus cultural information.The key fact is that all three dictionaries can be seen to have a distinctly "cultural" as well as language learning content. That being said, the way in which they approach the cultural element is not identical | making direct comparisons between the three difficulties.While there is some common ground between the encyclopedic/cultural entries for the Oxford and Longman dictionaries, there is a clear difference. Oxford lays claim to being encyclopedic on content whereas Longman distinctly concentrates on the language and culture of the English-speaking world. The Oxford dictionary can therefore stand more vigorous scrutiny for cultural bias than the Longman publication because the latter does not hesitate about viewing the rest of the world from the cultural perspectives of the English-speaking world. The cultural objectives of the BBC dictionary are in turn more distinct still. Based on an analysis of over 70 million words recorded from the BBC World Service and National Public Radio of Washington over a period of four years, their 1000 brief encyclopedic entries are based on people and places that have featured in the news recently. The intended user they have in mind is a regular listener to the World Service who will have a reasonable standard of English and a developed skill in listening comprehension.In reality, though, the BBC dictionary will be purchased by a far wider range of language learners, as will the other two dictionaries. We will be faced with a situation where many of the users of these dictionaries will at the very least socio-cultural perspectives and may have world views which are totally opposed and even hostile to those of the West. Advanced learners from this kind background will not only evaluate a dictionary on how user-friendly it is but will also have definite views about the scope and appropriateness of the various socio-cultural entries.Comprehension Questions1. What feature sets apart the three dictionaries discussed in the passage from traditional ones?A.the combination of two dictionaries into oneB.the new approach to defining wordsC.The inculusion of cultural contentD.The increase in the number of entries2. The Longman dictionary is more likely to be criticized for cultural prejudice because .A.its scope of cultural entries goes beyond the culture of the English-speaking worldB.it pays little attention to the cultural content of the non-English-speaking countriesC.it views the world purely from the standpoint of the English-speaking peopleD.it fails to distinguish language from culture in its encyclopedic entries3.The BBC dictionary differs from Oxford and Longman in that .A.it has a wider selection of encyclopedic entriesB.it is mainly designed to meet the needs of radio listenersC.it lays more emphasis on language than on cultureD.it is intended to help listeners develop their listening comprehension skills4. It is implied in the last paragraph that, in approaching socio-cultural content in a .A.dictionary, special thought should be given toB.the language levels of its usersC.the number of its prospective purchasersD.the different tastes of its usersE.the various cultural backgrouds of its users5. What is the passage mainly about?A.Different ways of treating socio-cultural elements in the three new English dictionaries.B. A comparison of people's opinions on the cultural content in the three new Englishdictionaries.C.The advatages of the BBC dictionary over Oxford and Longman.D.The user-friendliess of the three new English dictionaries.Passage TwoAnother thing to remember in connection with concrete is that you are not allowed very much freedom for errors in either measurements or location. Once you have a solid mass of concrete set in place, it is going to stay there. You have a difficult job ahead of you if you try to remedy a mistake. Make very sure, before you fill the form that everything is where and how you want it.There are numerous rules regarding the proper mixing, handling, and finishing of concrete, but the essential one concerns the amount of water to use. The less water in the mix, the less the finished job will shrink. The less water used, the harder and more enduring the job after it has set.The amateur concrete worker is plagued with two desires. One is to use enough water to have the concrete nice and soft and easy to push around. You have been warned against that. The second is to take off the wooden forms too early, to see what the job looks like. That is really fatal. If the forms are stripped off too soon, while the concrete is still "green" , two things are likely to happen—you are almost sure to break off corners or edges, and you are likely to cause a major crack or defect in the body of the work. An excellent rule is to wait until you are sure the concrete is properly hardened, and then wait another day before removing the forms.Comprehension Questions1.The best title for this selection would be .A.Rules for Working with ConcreteB.Concrete and Its UsesC.Concrete, the Homeowner's JoyD.Concrete, a Test of Character2. Two of the main thoughts in this passage are ( 1 ) preparation of forms for the con-crete must be thorough, and (2) forms must be allowed to remain on long enough. The third main idea is .A.taking off forms beforehand will probably cause a crack in the body of the workB.trying to make changes after concrete has been poured is not recommendedC.mixing concrete properly will make it very hard and stronging as little water as possible is recommended3. In mixing concrete, one of the desires the amateur must resist is to .A.break off a corner to see if the "green" has goneB.leave the form on too longe too much waterD.strip off the forms a day after the concrete has properly hardened4. A human quality apparently not essential in someone who works with concrete is .A.carefulnessB.inventivenessC.patienceD.self-control5. By the concrete being too " green" , the author means that the concrete has .A.become discolouredB.become crackedC.not yet curedD.not dried outUnit 14Passage OneAs Dr. Samuel Johnson said in a different era about ladies preaching, the surprising thing about computers in not that they think less well than a man, but that they think at all. The early electronic computer did not have much going for it except a marvelous memory and some good math skills. But today the best models can be wired up to learn by experience, follow an argument, ask proper questions and write poetry and music. They can also carry on somewhat puzzling conversations.Computers imitate life. As computers get more complex, the imitation gets better. Finally, the line between the original and the copy becomes unclear. In another 15 years or so, we will see the computer as a new form of life.The opinion seems ridiculous because, for one thing, computers lack the drives and emotions of living creatures. But drives can be programmed into the computer's brain just as nature programmed them into our human brains as a part of the equipment for survival.Computers match people in some roles, and when fast decisions are needed in a crisis, they often surpass them. Having evolved when the pace of life was slower, the human brain has an inherent defect that prevents it from absorbing several streams of information simultaneouslyand acting on them quickly. Throw too many things at the brain at one time and it freezes up.We are still in control, but the capabilities of computers are increasing at a fantastic rate, while raw human intelligence is changing slowly, if as all. Computer power has increased ten times every eight years since 1946. In the 1990s, when the sixth generation appears, the reasoning power of an intelligence built out of silicon will begin to match that of the human brain.That does not mean the evolution of intelligence has ended on the earth. Judging by the past, we can expect that a new species will arise out of man, surpassing his achievements as he has surpassed those of his predecessor. Only a carbon chemistry enthusiast would assume that the new species must be man's flesh-and-blood descendants. The new kind of intelligent life is more likely to be made of silicon.Comprehension Questions1. What do you suppose was the attitude of Dr. Samuel Johnson towards ladies preaching?A.He believed that ladies were born worse preachers than men.B.He was pleased that ladies could preach, though not as well as men.C.He disapproved of ladies preaching.D.He encouraged ladies to preach.2. Today , computers are still inferior to man in terms of .A.decision makingB.drives and feelingsC.growth of reasoning powerrmation absorption3. In terms of making quick decisions, the human brain cannot be compared with the computer because .A.in the long process of evolution the slow pace of life didn't require such ability of thehuman brain.B.the human brain is influenced by other factors such as motivation and emotionC.the human brain may sometimes freeze up in a dangerous situationputers imitate life while the human brain does not imitate computers4. Though he thinks highly of the development of computer science, the author doesn't mean that .puters are likely to become a new form of intelligent life.B.human beings have lost control of computersC.the intelligence of computers will eventually surpass that of human beingsD.the evolution of intelligence will probably depend on that of electronic brains5. Accordig to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?A.Future man will be made of silicon instead of flesh and blood.B.Some day it will be difficult to tell a computer from a man.C.The reasoning power of computers has already surpassed that of man.D.Future intelligent life may not necessarily be made of organic matter.Passage TwoHoming pigeons are placed in a training program from about the time they are 28 days of age. They are taught to enter the loft through a trap and to exercise above and around the loft and gradually they are taken away for short distances in wicker basket and released. They are then expected to find their way home in the shortest possible time.In their training flights or in actual races, the birds are taken to prearranged distant points and released to find their way back to their own lofts. Once the birds are liberated, their owners, who are standing by at the home lofts, anxiously watch the sky for the return of their entries. Since time is of the essence, the speed with which the birds can be induced to enter the loft trap may make the difference between gaining a win or a second place.The head of a homing pigeon is comparatively small but its brain is one quarter larger than that of the ordinary pigeon. The homing pigeon is very intelligent and will I persevere to the point of stubbornness E some have been known to fly a hundred miles off course to avoid a storm.Some homing pigeon experts claim that this bird is gifted with a form of built-in radar that helps it find its own loft after hours of flight, for hidden under the head feathers are two very sensitive ears, while the sharp prominent eyes can see great distances in daytime.Why do homing pigeons fly home? They are not Unique in this inherent skill; it is found in most migratory birds, in bees, ants, toads, and even turtles, which have been known to travel hundreds of miles to return to their homes. But in the animal world, the homing pigeon alone can be trusted with its freedom and trained to carry out the missions that people demand.Comprehension Questions1. The main purpose of the passage is .A.to convince the reader to buy a homing pigeonB.to inform the reader about the homing pigeons and their trainingC.to protect homing pigeons against the threat of extinctionD.to encourage the owners of homing pigeons to set the birds free2. According to the passage, when homing pigeons are about a month old .A.they are kept in a trapB.they enter their first raceC.they begin a training programD.they get their wings clipped and marked3. According to the passage, the difference between a homing pigeon and an ordinary one is .A.the span of the wingsB.the shape of the eyesC.the texture of the feathersD.the size of the brain4. The author mentions all of the following attributes that enable a homing pigeon to return home EXCEPT .A.instinctB.air sacsC.sensitive earsD.good eyes5. In Paragraph 4, line 2, the word "it" most probably refers to .A.radarB.birdC.loftD.formUnit 16Passage OneExtraordinary creative activity has been characterized as revolutionary, flying in the face of what is acceptable and producing not what is acceptable but what will become accepted. According to this formulation, highly creative activity transcends the limits of an existing form and establishes a new principle of organization. However, the idea that extraordinary creativity transcends established limits is misleading when it is applied to arts, even though it may be valid for the sciences. Differences between highly creative art and highly creative science arise in part from a difference in their goals. For the sciences, a new theory is the goal and end result of the creative act. Innovative science produces new propositions in terms of which diverse phenomena can be related to one another in more coherent ways. Such phenomena as a brilliant diamond or a nesting bird are relegated to the role of data, serving as the means for formulating or testing a new theory. The goal of highly creative art is very different: the phenomenon itself becomes the direct product of the creative act. Shakespeare's Hamlet is not a tract about the behavior of indecisive princes or the uses of political power; nor is Picasso's painting Guernica primarily a propositional statement about the Spanish Civil War or the evils of fascism. What highly creative artistic activity produces is not a new generalization that transcends established limits, but rather an aesthetic particular. Aesthetic particulars produced by the highly creative artist extend or exploit, in an innovative way, the limits of an existing form, rather than transcend that form.This is not to deny that a highly creative artist sometimes establishes a new principle of organization in the history of an artistic field; the composer Monteverdi, who created music of the highest aesthetic value, comes to mind. More generally, however, whether or not a composition establishes a new principle in the history of music has little bearing on its aesthetic worth. Because they embody a new principle of organization , some musical works, such as the operas of the Florentine Camerata, are of signal historical importance , but few listeners or musicologists would include these among the great works of music. On the other hand, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro is surely among the masterpieces of music even though its modest innovations are confined to extending existing means.' It has been said of Beethoven that he toppled the rules and freed music from the stifling confines of convention. But a close study of his compositions reveals that Beethoven overturned no fundamental rules. Rather, he was an incomparable strategist who exploited limits—the rules, forms, and conventions that he inherited from predecessors such as Haydn and Mozart, Handel and Bach—in strikingly original ways.Comprehension Questions1. The author considers a new theory that coherently relates diverse phenomena to one another to be the .。