综合英语第二册短文听写文本

综合英语第二册短文听写文本Unit1A pet is an animal tamed and kept as a favorite and treated with love. The range of animals kept by people as pets today is very wide. For example, rabbits, mice, goldfish, pigeons, horses, pigs, or even snakes are kept as pets by different people. However, dogs and cats are still the most popular pets, and about half the households in Britain own one or the other. The importance of pets in British life is reflected in many ways. In the past, landowners liked to be portrayed with their dogs and horses and many such pictures can be seen in art. In many families, pets are regarded as family members. That’s why British people often say “Love me, love my dog.”Unit2Today, the old attitudes toward how children should be brought up have largely disappeared. For many children, family life has become more relaxed and less strict. Many young people in Britain and the US have a considerable amount of freedom and they can enjoy the things they are interested in: music, sports, television, even money and fashion. Life has become easier and more enjoyable. However, along with an easy life and permissive families, a number of social problems have arisen for the young. For example, some schools have problems with discipline and motivation; and crime and drug taking in some areas have reached serious levels. During the 1980s and early 1990s unemployment among school-dropouts was a particular problem, with many facing a bleak future and having little hope of finding a decent job.Unit 3A fisherman had caught a little fish. The poor creature begged him to throw it back again to the water, saying, “What is the use of catching me? I am not large enough yet. Throw me back into the river, and you will catch me when I am bigger. Then I shall be a fine dish fo r you.” The fisherman answered, “There’s no use of talking. If I let you into the water again, it is doubtful whether I may ever see you anymore. You shall go into the frying pan and be fried this evening.” This fable illustrates an idea: A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.Unit 4The computer performs simple and fast calculations under the control of a set of instructions called a program. The programs are usually stored within, and processed by, the computer. The calculation results which are sent to output devices, such as monitors or printers, are mechanically precise. Because of its extraordinary speed and accuracy, the computer finds application in a wide range of activities in business, industry, and scientific research. Besides, computers can also provide entertainment, creating sound on stereo systems or cartoons from a VCD. Computer programs can as well aid every level of education by teaching everything from simple addition orsentence construction to advanced courses.Unit 5We all hope for a better life, to be happier one day. However hopeful we may be, events do come that dash our fondest hopes and cause us to lose heart. We may be in low spirits for quite some time, but we take heart again. We start looking forward to the future: there is a ray of hope, however faint. Hopes are important to us since they can relieve our feelings of frustration and give us courage to face the future. We believe that where there is life, there is hope. Let’s hold on to it until our hopes become a reality.Unit6In the 1970s, Pelé retired from the national team of Brazil and became a professional player for a team in New York. Soccer wasn’t very popular in the United States at that time. Few North Americans knew about this fast-moving sport. There was no money to pay professional players, and there was little interest in soccer in the high schools and colleges. When Pelé and other international stars began playing in various U.S. cities, people saw how interesting the game was and began to go to the matches. Today there is a professional league called the North American Soccer League. It is common for important games to have 50 to 60 thousand fans.Unit7There is no place like the English countryside for those who love it: its firm yet gentle lines of hills and valleys, its ordered confusion of features, its parks and lowland, its ancient castles and houses, its cottages and churches, its farms and trees, its pools and ponds and shining rivers—all present a peaceful and lovely sight. Much of the countryside is of course farmland but there are often paths through the fields, called public footpaths, which you can walk along. It is good for people to walk through such a land, forgetting for a time all the worries of the world, and become just happy wanderers in a world of pleasant breezes and song-birds and shady trees.Unit 8People often ask what beauty is and how the beautiful can be distinguished from the ugly. In fact, these questions all deal with matters of evaluation rather than facts. A hairstyle can be considered by one as beautiful, but by another as ugly. The nature of beauty is associated with so many things that scientific investigation is only of slight help in determining what beauty is. However, different people will find beauty in different things because their response to beauty is closely related to their upbringing, education, and taste.Unit 9People believe that there are two reasons for making inventions or discoveries. The first reason is that an invention is the result of social development. In other words, if a society has prepared the conditions in economy, technology and culture, somethingwill be invented by one person or another. Who does it is just a historical accident. This theory has some support in the invention of the steamboat and the airplane. However, this reason does not explain why a great inventor can observe more things than others. Therefore, there must be another reason for inventions, and the second theory considers the individual as the most important element in the inventive process.Unit10Music has been called the most abstract of the arts. Unlike words, pictures, and bodily movements, musical tones in themselves have no concrete references. To understand and enjoy a musical performance, one must be familiar with its choice of sounds and its organizing principles. Although some musical works are difficult to understand, music has become a necessity of life. People are keen on music because it brings fun to them. Different people like different music: some are fond of classical music, and others take pleasure in pop music. Nevertheless, most people love light music.Unit 11The term education has had a variety of definitions. The traditional view of education is expressed in the formal teaching activities conducted in schools and universities. A better definition is that education is a lifelong process that includes both formal schooling and the broad range of other experiences, including television viewing, out-of-class activities, and family living, that usually take more time and often have more powerful influences than the formal schooling does.Unit 12Most people love trees for their beauty, but trees are valuable in many practical ways, too. Wood from trees provides fuel for heating or cooking and lumber for houses, furniture, and tools. Trees produce most fruits and nearly all nuts. They supply many raw materials for industry. Trees also help preserve the land. The roots of trees keep soil from being washed or blown away. Thick carpets of leaves and roots on the ground soak up rainwater and keep it from draining rapidly into streams and rivers. Thus forests act as reservoirs of rainwater.Unit 14New York Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe “Museum Mile,” a stretch of Fifth Avenue that runs along Central Park on Ne w York’s Upper East Side, is the location of some world-class museums. The most famous of these is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, commonly known as “The Met.” It is an enormous museum, the largest in the United States. The Met’s holdings cover all periods and styles of art, and its permanent collection contains more than two million pieces. A few of the highlights of the collection include the hall of Egyptian artifacts, the display of armor, and the exhibition of clothing and fashion design throughout history. There are, of course, many famous paintings, sculptures, and photographs to view as well. In addition to its main collection, the Met puts on manyspecial exhibitions each year, inviting visitors to come back again and again.Unit 15Of all my relat ives, I like my aunt Emily the best. She’s my mother’s youngest sister. She never married, and she lives alone in a small village near Bath. She’s in her late fifties, but she’s still quite young at heart. She has a fair complexion, thick brown hair, and dark brown eyes. She has a kind face, and when you meet her, the first thing you notice is her lovely, warm smile. Her face is a little wrinkled now, but I think she’s still rather attractive. She’s the sort of person you can always go to if you have a problem.Unit 13 是一个故事的复述，不是听写，大家可以不听。