听力文章

The real problem with pollution is people—/the way people think about their environment and their relationship with it. /We are all reluctant to accept the fact that our natural resources are fixed –/fixed, in fact, since the earth was created. /We want to go on using virgin materials./ We are not educated on reusing resources, /or even placing a value on ‘waste’ products. /We are a crisis society. /Currently, we are fearful of losing the use of our water and air to pollution./ In one context, it is probably a good thing /that we are so concerned because now we will begin/ to adjust our thinking on the values of natural resources. /We once thought of water and air as free. /They are not, not any more than the land is free. /People have not wanted to be educated on the part/ they must play in solving our environment problem.UFOsThere are many explanations for why UFOs visit the Earth. /The most popular one is that they may be visitors from other planets./ To fly such aircraft, their builders must develop different forms of aviation, /because they seem to fly much faster than normal aircraft. /The UFOs, it is believed, must contain scientists /from other planets who are studying life on earth. /It is even believed that several such aircrafts may have landed on earth/ and the space visitors may be living among us.But there are also less fantastic explanations available./Although some sightings of UFOs are difficult to explain, most can be explained quite easily. /In many cases the observers might have made a mistake. /They might have seen a weather balloon or an aircraft. /Or the light they saw in the sky might have been light from the ground,/ reflected onto the clouds. /However, the exact cause of many sightings still remained a mystery./American Thanksgiving DayThe traditional American Thanksgiving celebration goes back to 1621. In that year a special feast was prepared in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The colonists who had settled there had left England because they felt denied of religious freedom. They came to the new land and faced difficulties in coming across the ocean. The ship which carried them was called Mayflower. The North Atlantic was difficult to travel. There were bad storms. They were assisted in learning to live in the new land by the Indians who inhabited the region. The Puritans, as they were called, had much to be thankful for. Their religious practices were no longer a source of criticism by the government. They learned to adjust their farming habits to the climate and soil. When they selected the fourth Thursday of November for their Thanksgiving celebration, they invited their neighbors, the Indians, to join them in dinner and a prayer of gratitude for the new life.British women, in common with women in most Western countries, have been fighting for sexual equality with men for much of the last century. Their achievements have been considerable.First and foremost, discrimination against anyone on the grounds of their sex alone is illegal. For women, this means they are entitled to be given equal respect and status with men in all areas of life. Many British women expect to pursue careers for intellectual, financial and social reasons. They also expect equal pay with mean for the same job. When they have family responsibilities, some women, depending on financial and other circumstances, choose not to work; other choose to take time off work while their children are young. In still other families, the father will give up work while the mother continues to pursue her career. In all of these cases, men and women are generally expected to share the domestic responsibilities at home with their partners.Most people prefer short stories to novels. Magazines, newspapers and books, printed in millions of copies every month, often supply the demand for short fiction. In the U.S. today the short story is the most popular form of current literature. Perhaps it is the modern manner of living that demands that all current fiction be short. In the present society people do everything with a fast pace. Literature shares its place in the favor of the crowd with amusements undreamed of a hundred years ago. The time for leisurely reading of ten-volume novels appears to have passed. The fiction readers demand a form that best fits their habits. Long introductions and detailed descriptive passages became the special joy of a particular kind of reader, whereas the。