综合英语二 课文总结

综合英语二课文总结上册Lesson One: Twelve Things I wish they taught at schoolOutline:The author attended junior and senior high school in New York and New Jersey. Sometimes he think how grateful he would be today if he had learned more back then about what really matters.List of the things that school should teach:-Pick a difficult thing and learn it well.While you learn a little bit about many subjects, make sure you learn a great deal about one or two.-Don’t be afraid to ask “stupid” questions.Many apparently naive questions are really deep questions.-Listen carefully.Try to understand what they are saying, what experience is behind their remarks.-Everybody makes mistakes.The only embarrassment is in not learning from your mistakes.-Know your planet.-Science and technology.The great discoveries in modern science are also great discoveries of the human spirit.-Don't spend your life watching TV.-CultureDon’t restrict to American or Western culture.-CompassionOur passion to understand the universe and our compassion for others jointly provide the chief hope for the human race.Lesson Two: IconsOutline:Heroes and cultural iconsPeople today choose media icons for their “most admired” list.Definition:Heroes and heroines are men and women distinguished by uncommon courage, achievements, and self-sacrifice made often for the benefit of others.Cultural icons are people who manage to transcend celebrity, who are legendary, who somehow manage to become mythic.Being somebodyOne hundred years ago, people became famous for what they had achieved. The people we most admire today are usually those who are most highly publicized by the media.Boorstin: “The hero was distinguished by his accomplishment; the celebrity by his image or trademark. The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media. The hero was a big man; the celebrity is a big name.”Heroes inspire respect; celebrities inspire envy. Except for the attention they get from the media, these people are exactly like us.Today an appearance on a television talk show is the ultimate proof of “making it” in America.Lesson Three: Go-go AmericansOutline:Americans believe no one stands still. If you are not moving ahead, you are falling behind. Americans seem to be always in a hurry. For example, they elbow their way when they try to complete errands. They eat in a hurry in order to make room for others. When talking business, they will not waste time on dinners and golf course.Americans always have strict schedule. They will have one appointment following hard on the heel of another and live according to it.Americans produce a lot of labor-saving devices ad prefer telecommunication.Lesson Four: Take Over, Bos’n!Outline:There was a shipwreck and the survivors have been floating on a lifeboat for 20 days. Snyder kept his gun aimed at others in order to keep them away from the water they craved. Snyder knew that once the water was gone they’d have nothing to look forward to but death. Jeff Barrett was the nearest one and a constant threat. He was ready to jump at the last canteen of water. Snyder was in command and he had to think of them all. Snyder couldn’t hold on anymore and the instant he fell asleep he whispered “Take Over, Bos’n.” In the end, they were rescued, and Barrett knew he couldn’t afford to think only of himself as the man in command.Lesson Five: Are you giving your kids too much?Outline:The tendency to give children an overabundance of toys and clothes is quite common in American families. In far too many families not only do children come to take their parents’generosity for granted, but also the effects of this can actually be somewhat harmful to children.Children can also be overindulged with too many privileges-for example, when parents send a child to an expensive summer camp that the parents can’t really afford.One fairly common reason is that parents overindulge their children out of a sense of guilt.Other parents overindulge because they want their children to have everything they had while growing up, along with those things the parents yearned for but didn’t get.Overindulgence of a child also happens when parents are unable to stand up to their children’s unreasonable demands.Children may become greedy, self-centered, ungrateful and insensitive to the needs and feelings of others. When children are given too much, it undermines their respect for their parents.Overindulged children are not as creative in their play as other children.Lesson Six: Culture shockOutline:Definition:An occupational disease of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad.Cause:Anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. Symptoms:1.They will reject the host environment and grumble about the difficulties.2.Regression: home environment suddenly took on tremendous importance and it usually takea trip home to bring them back into reality.3.Some specific indicators of culture shock include: washing hands excessively, fits of angerover minor frustration and terrible longing to go back home and so on.Phases:1.Honeymoon phase: everything is perceived to be charming and interesting.2.Crisis stage: fresh appeal wears off and everyday reality sinks in. You begin to sense thedifficulties in learning language and establishing social relationship.3.Recovery stage: You can cope with the host environment on the basis of some mastery,competence and comfort.4.Adjustment: You function automatically in the new culture. You regain the initial positiveregard you had in the honeymoon stage.Lesson Seven: The Model Millionaire 1Outline:Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. Hughie was wonderfully good-looking, and popular with men as well as women. He had gone on Stock exchange, had been a tea merchant and had tried selling dry sherry. At last he became nothing, a delightful, useless young man with a perfect face and no profession.To make matters worse, he was in love with Laura Merton, the daughter of a former army officer who was bad-tempered. Laura’s father would not hear of any engagement unless Hughie had ten thousand pounds.One morning, he went to see his friend, Alan Trevor, who was a painter. He slipped all he had (a pound) to a miserable-looking beggar model in his friend’s studio.Lesson Eight: The Model Millionaire 2Outline:That night Hughie met his friend Trevor again at a club, Trevor told him that he told the old beggar all about Hughie’s private affairs, including the cruel father, the lovely Laura and the ten thousand pounds. He also told Hughie that painters’ business is to show the world as they see it, not to make it better. Trevor also told Hughie that the old beggar called Baron Hausberg was one of the richest men in Europe. Hughie regretted having given Baron Hausberg a pound, but Trevor thought it showed his kindness of spirit. However, it turns out that Baron gave Hughie a cheque for ten thousand pounds as a wedding present to Hughie and Laura!Lesson Nine: Only Three More DaysOutline:William, an American reporter, intended to take Berlin diaries out of the city, but there was enough in them to get him hanged, if the Gestapo ever discovered them. He put diaries at the bottom of the suitcase ad put broadcast scripts and General Staff maps above. He then phoned Gestapo and asked to be inspected. At the critical moment, he mentioned he reported on the great success of German army, and that settled everything. At the airport, due to dozens of seals from Gestapo, he successfully flew off.Lesson Ten: The WashwomanOutline:This is a story about one Gentile washwoman who came to the house to fetch the author’s family’s laundry. She was a small woman, old and wrinkled. She was already past seventy. She possessed a strength that came from generations of peasant ancestors. Every piece of laundry was as clean as polished silver. Every piece was neatly ironed, and she charged no more than others. She could have begged at the church door or entered a home for the poor and aged. But there was a certain pride and love of labor in her that kept her from doing so. In spite that her son treated her cruelly, she never complained. She returned the laundry to its rightful owners even when she was severely ill.Lesson Eleven: How I served my apprenticeshipOutline:-Father: Used to be a well-to-do master weaver . He owned no fewer than four handlooms and employed apprentices. When the steam engine came, handloom weaving naturally declined and the father was out of work.-Carnegie: Soon followed his father to work in a cotton factory as a “bobbin-boy” He felt very proud when he received his first week’s earnings because it was given to him because he had been of some use. He then became a contributing member of his family. He thought this made a man out of a boy sooner than almost anything else. He was filled with a feeling of satisfaction because the money was the hard-earned reward of honest work. He believed that he would get into a better position some day.-Poverty: poverty is not an evil, on the contrary, it is upon which certain virtues are produced.These virtues have enabled the human race to reach a high-level of civilization. Poverty enables children of the poor to grow up in the genuine loving care of their parents. At an early age, children of the poor family began to share their parents’responsibility of supporting the family. This helps to develop a sense of responsibility in them, this is why many outstanding people come from poor families.Lesson Twelve: A Friend of the EnvironmentOutline:When she was a little girl, Rachel Carson liked birds, plants and other animals. When she was a sophomore, she was even keen on nature. The biology course she took widened her horizon, and made her discover the wonder and excitement of scientific study of the animals. After graduation, she was engaged in research, researching the sea animals, and she published articles about it. In 1951, The Sea Around Us, a popular scientific book, was published and it was on the best-seller list for more than eighty consecutive weeks. In another book Silent Spring(1962), Carson sounded a startling warning to mankind; if human beings keep using the poisonous chemical pesticides indiscriminately, all the birds and other animals and plants would be destroyed. And then there might come a springtime that would indeed be silent. The book, for the first time, made the public aware of an important issue-environmental protection, hence it became a landmark of human beings’ efforts to save the earth, the common home of human beings and their friends.Lesson Thirteen: Who shall dwell?Outline:1.Stage One(the getting ready)When the bomb alert was announced by the announcer, the father and the mother responded to it differently. Father was shocked and puzzled. He could not quite believe it.Then he jumped to his feet to take his children to the shelter. The mother’s first response to it was to get her children.2.Stage Two(the waiting)While in the shelter the man and his wife knew that others would come soon, begging and crying to be taken in now that the time was here. They had argued about this when the shelter was being built. But they didn’t have similar views. The mother wanted to share their refuge with their neighbors, while the father though a man’s primary duty is to protect his family.3.Stage Three(the last three minutes)Before the first bomb struck the mother stepped out and gave her place to a little girl. There were two minutes left, and the father made his decision. He stepped out and snatched up the two children nearest him, and shoved them into the shelter. He asked his elder son to take care of the children.4.ConclusionThe husband and wife had much in common in that they were both kind and unselfish people.Lesson Fourteen: Cipher in the SnowOutline:1.What happened that morning on the author’s way to school?- A boy died on the way to school; the students and the staff were shocked at the news; they didn’t know who he was.-Since the author was listed as the boy’s favorite teacher, he was sent to the boy’s home by the principal.2.What did the author learn about Cliff later?-His mother was very sad at hearing the news; his stepfather was indifferent to it; he has never been adopted by his stepfather.-From his records, the author knew that education and his teachers made him become nobody.-The author was very angry at the result.3.How did this incident influence the author?-She has never forgotten Cliff Evans.-She decided to fight to the bitter end doing battle with society and the school board.-She will not make every student a nobody.Lesson Fifteen: Bribery- An inevitable Evil?Outline:-What are the major forms of bribery?Bribery can be classified into three broad categories.1.The first category consists of large amount of money paid for political purposes or to securemajor contracts. For example, a certain American company offered big sums of money to support a U.S. presidential candidate when it was under investigation. Also in order to get big contracts, such payments are often made to ruling families or their close advisers.2.The second category covers payments made to obtain quicker official approval of someproject, to speed up the wheels of bureaucracy. In such cases, the money is often paid to key-government officials concerned.3.The third category involves payments made in certain countries where it is traditional topay people to facilitate the passage of a business deal. For instance, a foreign company may pay to get permission to import equipment. A common type of this category is the"facilitating payment" to clear cargoes. These are smaller sums of money paid to customs officials.-Is bribery an inevitable evil?It is true that bribery in business is still pervasive today. But that does not mean bribery should be eternally inevitable. All countries should take measures to fight bribery. National and international laws should be formulated to ban bribery. Political reforms should be carried outto minimize the necessity, possibility and feasibility of bribery. With the ceaseless efforts of the entire world, bribery in business can be conquered.Lesson Sixteen: A Social EventOutline:Randy and Carole are a young promising Hollywood couple. They want to attend the famous star Scotty Woodrow’s funeral to promote their prestige. They are worried because they are notinvited. They call their agent to help, but to no avail. Then they want to crash or find the excuse of food poisoning for not attending the funeral, but neither way is feasible. They finally make it as family members of their cook, Muriel, who worked previously for Mr. Woodrow. They feel somewhat uneasy, but they find themselves an excuse.下册Lesson One: Courtesy: Key to a Happier WorldOutline:The basic ingredients of good manners:1. A strong sense of justice.2.Empathy, a quality that enables a person to see into the mind or heart of someone else, tounderstand the pain or unhappiness there and to do something to minimize it.3.The capacity to treat all people alike.Anyone can improve his or her manners by doing three things:1.Practicing courtesy.2.Thinking in a courteous way.3.Being able to accept courtesy, receive it gladly, rejoice when it comes your way.Lesson Two: The Man who could work Miracles 1Outline:Mr. Fotheringay didn’t believe in miracle until he was thirty years old. But one day when he experienced the fact that the lamp hung upside down in the air, burning quietly with its flame pointing down by his will, he feared , and wondered. So he went home with face red and hot. Alone in his little bedroom, he asked himself:”What on earth happened?”After he tried a series of experiments, his perception of possibilities of miracles enlarged. For a time he stared at the miracle he worked and looked up and met his own gaze in the looking glass. He wondered whether his experiences might not be a dream. Then he made another series of experiments to will things such as turning a glass of water pink and then green increasing his personal properties, etc. Finally, he reached the fact that his will power must be unusual and strong, so the fears of his first discovery were mixed with pride, ideas of advantage and delight.Lesson Three: The man who could work miracles 2Outline:On Sunday, Mr. Fotheringay confided his extraordinary power to the clergyman, Mr. Maydig, and performed some miracles for him. Mr. Maydig felt surprised at this, and urged on Mr. Fotheringay to make one miracle after another. Their ambitions became larger and larger, finally at the request of the clergyman, Mr. Fotheringay stopped rotation of the earth. The earth did stop, however, the movables upon its surface did not stop and go on moving, and made serious damages. Mr. Fotheringay perceived his miracles had been miscarried, so he ordered that everything be as it was, with that, he willed the loss of his odd power.Lesson Four: Zero Hour: Forty-Three Seconds over HiroshimaOutline:1.When Kaz saw a B-29 approaching, it didn’t frighten her, because she thought Hiroshima wasthe only peaceful city during the war.2.Kaz saw the bomb falling away from the plane and drifting down towards her. The journeytook 43 seconds. A loud explosion reverberated in the air. A mushroom cloud rose over the remains of the city. Kaz was flung to the ground so violently that her two front teeth broke off.She sunk into unconsciousness.3.When Kaz came to herself, she found there was a dead silence around, broken only by thecries of the dying. Their house crashed down. The father had the front of his body burnt.When her brother came back, she could barely recognize him through his wounds.4.Kaz had fallen ill with all the symptoms of radiation sickness, the disease was one of thefrightening aftershocks of the bomb, Kaz fell as if she was dying. She run a fever. She felt sick and dizzy, almost drunk. Her gums and her bowels were bleeding. She looked like a ghost.Finally she recovered, but the illness had not really left her, it had gone into hiding.Lesson Five: First PrinciplesOutline:The wades were a middle-class family of five, Henry, Emily, their 14-year-old daughter Lauraand their two younger sons. They lived in New York City.A month before Christmas, Henry, the breadwinner of the family, lost his job. He and his wife decided to spend Christmas on their farm, where they had a simple but memorable celebration. They gave Laura as gifts a picture and a small brooch that had belonged to her grandmother,and the boy’s balls and story books. The family had a turkey and a tree from their own woods. They had a lot of fresh air and exercise. The children were more than satisfied. Emily thoughtno other family had a nicer Christmas than they did.Christmas should be an occasion to express one’s love for one’s family and Christmas gifts should gifts should be what one can afford and what is worth remembering.Lesson Six: The Beauty of BritainOutline:Britain is a small land, but it is very beautiful. One of its charms lies in its variety. Like any other big countries, it has mountains, plains, rivers, and lakes within its land of 240500 square kilometers. Someone may say that mountains there are only mountains in miniature. However, they possess the air of high mountains though they are small. Another characteristic of Britain is its pleasant surprises. A traveler will be constantly surprised at what he sees. On the rolling plains, he may suddenly find high mountains with steep slopes in the front. In a highly industrialized area, he will find a rough plain unexpectedly. But what touches the traveler most is the compromise between Nature and Man, villages and cities. This characteristic is the most evident in the suburbs, where the inhabitants can not only enjoy the civilization of the city, but can also live an easy life like a country gentleman.Lesson Seven: Some Meanings of Authentic LoveOutline:1. Love means I know the person I love.2. Love means that I care about the welfare of the person I love.3. Love means having respect for the dignity of the person I love.4. Love means having a responsibility toward the person I love.5. Love means growth for both myself and the person I love.6. Love can tolerate imperfection.7. Love is freeing.8. Love is expansive.9. Love means having a want for the person I love without having a need for that person in order to be complete.10. Love means identifying with the person I love.11. Love is selfish.12. Love involves seeing the potential within the person we love.Lesson Eight: How I Designed an A-Bomb in my junior year at PrincetonOutline:Phillips was a below-average physics student. He decided to design an A-bomb to prove that a terrorist group could easily make an A-bomb with the information and materials available. He chose Freeman Dyson as his adviser, who actually gave little help. He first mastered basic principles and theories. In Washington D. C. he got some valuable documents from the records of the Los Alamos Project declassified between 1954 and 1964. An atomic bomb is like a marble inside a grapefruit inside a basketball inside a beach ball. At the center of the bomb is the initiator, a marble-size piece of mental. Around the initiator is a grapefruit-size ball of plutonium-239. Wrapped around the plutonium is a three-inch reflector shield made of beryllium. High explosives are placed symmetrically around the beryllium shield. Most of the supplies are legally available at hardware stores and chemical-supply houses. Plutonium would be the most difficult supply. Phillips scanned government documents and put together a huge jigsaw puzzle. He ran through a series of new calculations, mathematically figuring the arrangement of the explosives around the plutonium. He called the DuPont Company about the explosives he would use. In less than three months’ time, he succeeded in designing an A-bomb.Lesson Nine: Forty Years OnOutline:Aunt Carrie was the aunt to both John Bullyer and me. John and I did not meet each other until 50 years later when they were In their early sixties. During the forty years, they were compelled to compete with each other. Both of them achieved success in their life. And only when the moment they met each other did they realize that it was their aunt who helped them a lot.Lesson Ten: On FriendshipOutline:Four different-kinds of friendship：1.AmericanFew American stay put for a lifetime. To Americans, “friend”is applied to a wide range of relationships.2.FrenchIn France，as in many European countries，friends generally are of the same sex，and friendship is seen as basically a relationship between men. For the French，friendship is a one-to-one relationship that demands a keen awareness of the other person‘s intellect，temperament and particular interests. French friendships are divided into categories,. These friendships are not made part of family life.3.GermanCommon feelings lies at the core of friendships for Germans. Outside the family, men and women find in their closest friends of the same sex the devotion of a sister, the loyalty of a brother. Deep disagreement on any subject that matters to both can destroy a German friendship.4.EnglishThe basis of English friendship is shared activity.Lesson Eleven: Selling the Post 1Outline:-Mother’s Character:1.Self-reliant: she brought two children up all by herself and made something of Russell.2.Strict: She always cited maxims to goad her son when he complained about difficulties.3.Considerate: When she found Russell couldn’t make a success in the world of business,she didn’t stick to it but rather encouraged Russell to do something he was good at.Russell began working in journalism when he was eight years old. The flaw in his character which his mother had already spotted was lack of gumption. In contrast, Doris liked activity. When she was only seven, she could carry a piece of short-weighted cheese back to the A&P, threaten the manager with legal action and come back triumphantly with the full quarter pound they'd paid for and a new extra thrown in for forgiveness .One afternoon, his mother arranged Russell to see an executive of Curtis Publishing Company. The man did an interview with Russell and assigned Russell to sell the newspaper and made the him a representative of the company. The following Tuesday Russell embarked on the highway of journalism.Lesson Twelve: Selling the Post 2Outline:Russell failed in his first day selling. He told his mother he’d changed his mind about wanting to succeed in the magazine business. After hearing those words his mother forced him to continue even though he hated it. Afterwards, she instructed him in salesmanship. But finally his mother concluded that he would never make something of himself by pursuing a life in business and started considering careers that demanded less competitive zeal. After reading a short composition of her son she decided to make him become a writer.Lesson Thirteen: How to grow oldOutline :-The recipe for keeping youth is to develop wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be affective.-What’s more, you have to avoid two things.1.Too great an absorption in the past2.Clinging to your children. If you stay with your child too close, they might consider you aburden.-Old man shouldn’t be afraid of death. If they have finished everything that is in them to do, the fear of death might be ignoble.Three passions Russell has lived for:1.The longing for love.2.The search for knowledge.3.Unbearable pity for suffering of mankind.Lesson Fourteen: The ListenerOutline:1.In my opinion, the major characters of the lighthouse keeper are listed as follows:2.First of all, he was very brave.3.We learn from the essay that in the face of the violent storm, he remains equable, seeminglytook it as the involuntary movement of his body.4.Next, he was hospitable.5.Although he had never met the fiddler before in his life, the lighthouse keeper took him inand offered him food and drinks.st but not the least, he was a considerable listener.7.Ignorant as he was about violin, when the fiddler played a piece of passionate music, helistened massively, and conferred upon him greatest importance.8.In conclusion, the lighthouse keeper was courageous, kind and willing to identify with theinner world of a stranger as well.Lesson Fifteen: Edison: Inventor of InventionOutline:Edison is the greatest inventor of the world. His inventions include the incandescent lamp, the photograph and innumerable other devices. But the total effect of his career surpasses the sum of all of them. His greatest contribution to mankind is that is that he altered the mentality of mankind and established the place of scientific research in human society.People in the previous ages viewed the world as unchangeable and beyond man’s control. Edison and his inventions demonstrated and helped people accept the idea that the world could be changed, things could be invented and life could be made better. Largely because of his success, there came into wide acceptance the revolutionary conception that man could by the use of his intelligence invent a new mode of living on this planet.Edison was the supreme propagandist of science and his name the great symbol of an almost blind faith in its possibilities. He was not only the symbol but the creator of a new age.。