优美英语短文背诵80篇+中文翻译
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>01 Television
Television -- the most pervasive and persuasive of modern technologies, marked by rapid change and growth -- is moving into a new era, an era of extraordinary sophistication and versatility, which promises to reshape
our lives and our world. It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made possible by the marriage of television and computer technologies.
The word "television", derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin (visio: sight) roots, can literally be interpreted as sight from a distance. Very simply put, it works in this way: through a sophisticated system of electronics, television provides the capability of converting an image(focused on a special photoconductive plate within a camera) into
electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire or cable. These impulses, when fed into a receiver (television set), can then be electronically reconstituted into that same image.
Television is more than just an electronic system, however. It is a means of expression, as well as a vehicle for communication, and as such becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings.
The field of television can be divided into two categories determined by its means of transmission. First, there is broadcast television, which reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television signals. Second, there is nonbroadcast television, which provides for the needs of individuals or specific
interest groups t hrough controlled transmission techniques.
Traditionally, television has been a medium of the masses. We are most familiar with broadcast television because it has been with us for about thirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today. During
those years, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, who have been the major purveyors of news, information, and entertainment. These giants of broadcasting have actually shaped not only television but our perception of it as well. We have come to look upon the picture tube as a source of entertainment, placing our role in this dynamic medium as the passive viewer.
电视电视--以快速变化与发展为标志的最普遍、最具有影响力的一项现代技术，正在步 入一个极端复杂化与多样化的新时代。
这个时代承诺重新塑造我们的生活和我们的世界。 这可以称得上是又一次电子革命，其关键在于电视技术与计算机技术的结合。"电视"这个词 来源于希腊语词根(tele ：远)和拉丁语词根(vision ：景象)，可以从字面上理解为来自远处的 景象。
简单说来，电视是以这种方式工作的，通过一个复杂的电子系统，电视能够将一幅 图像(这幅图像被聚焦在一部摄像机内的一块特殊的光导底片上)转换成能经过导线或电缆 发送出去的电子脉冲信号。
当这些电子脉冲信号被输入一部接收机(电视机)时，就可以用 电子学的方法把脉冲信号重新恢复成同一幅图像。但是，电视不仅仅是一个电子系统，它还是一种表达工具和传播渠道。 因此，电视成了一个对其他人发生影响的强大工具。电视这 个领域可以根据其发射方式分为两类。
第一类为广播电视，通过电视信号的宽带无线电波 发射展现在大众面前；第二类为非广播电视，使用受控的发射技术来满足个人以及某些特殊利益群体的需要。电视早已成为大众媒介。 我们熟悉广播电视，因为广播电视已经以类似 目前的方式存在了大约 37 年。
在那些年头中，电视绝大部分一直由 ABC 、NBC 、CBS 这 些广播电视公司控制着，这些广播电视公司一直是新闻、信息和娱乐的主要提供者。 这些 广播业的巨头实际上不仅塑造了电视，而且也塑造了我们对电视的理解。 我们渐渐把显像 管看作是娱乐的来源，让自己成为这个生动的媒介的被动观众。
>02 Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie, known as the King of Steel, built the steel industry in the United States, and, in the process,
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became one of the wealthiest men in America. His success resulted in part from his ability to sell the product and in part from his policy of expanding during periods of economic decline, when most of his competitors were reducing their investments.
Carnegie believed that individuals should progress through hard work, but he also felt strongly that the wealthy should use their fortunes for the benefit of society. He opposed charity, preferring instead to provide educational opportunities that would allow others to help themselves. "He who dies rich, dies disgraced, " he o ften said.
Among his more noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear his name, including the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which has a library, a museum of fine arts, and a museum of national history. He also founded a school of
technology that is now part of Carnegie-Mellon University. Other philanthropic gifts are the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to promote understanding between nations, the Carnegie Institute of Washington to fund scientific research, and Carnegie Hall to provide a center for the arts.
Few Americans have been left untouched by Andrew Carnegie's generosity. His contributions of more than five million dollars established 2,500 libraries in small communities throughout the country and formed the nucleus of the public library system that we all enjoy today.
安德鲁·卡内基 被称作钢铁大王的安德鲁·卡内基在美国建立了钢铁工业。 在这个过 程中，他变成了美国最富有的人之一。
他的成功，部分来自于他销售产品的能力，部分来 自于经济萧条时期的扩充策略。 在萧条时期，他的多数对手都在缩减投资。卡内基认为个 人应该通过努力工作来获得进展，但他也强烈地感到有钱人应该运用他们的财富来为社会谋 取福利。 他反对施舍救济，更愿意提供教育机会，使别人自立。
卡内基经常说："富有着 死去的人死得可耻。"他对社会的较重要的贡献都以他的名字命名。 这些贡献包括匹兹堡卡 内基学校。
这个学校有一个图书馆，一个美术馆和一个国家历史博物馆；他还创立了一所 技术学校，这所学校现在是卡内基 梅隆大学的一部分；其他的慈善捐赠有为促进国家间了 解的"卡内基国际和平基金"，为科学研究提供经费的华盛顿卡内基学院以及给各种艺术活动 提供活动中心的卡内基音乐厅。安德鲁·卡内基的慷慨大度几乎影响到每个美国人的生活。 由于他超过五百万美元的捐款，2500 个图书馆得以建立起来，遍布在美国各地的小村镇， 形成了我们今天还在享用的公共图书馆系统的核心。
>03 American Revolution
The American Revolution was not a revolution in the sense of a radical or total change. It was not a sudden and violent overturning of the political and social framework, such as later occurred in France
and Russia, when both were already independent nations.
Significant changes were ushered in, but they were not breathtaking. What happened was
accelerated evolution rather than outright revolution. During the conflict itself people went onworking and praying, marrying and playing. Most of them were not seriously disturbed by the actual fighting, and many of the more isolated communities scarcely
knew that a war was on. America's War of Independence heralded the birth of three modern nations. One was Canada, which received its first large influx of English-speaking population from the thousands of loyalists who fled there from the United States. Another was Australia, which became a penal colony now that America was no longer available for prisoners and debtors. The third newcomer -- the United States -- based itself squarely on republican principles.
Yet even the political overturn was not so revolutionary as one might suppose. In some states, notably Connecticut and Rhode Island, the war largely ratified a colonial self-rule already existing. British officials, everywhere
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ousted, were replaced by a home-grown governing class, which promptly sought a local substitute for king and Parliament. 美国革命 美国革命其实并不算是一场革命，因为它并未导致完全的和彻底的变化。 这
次革命并不是对政治和社会框架的一次突然和猛烈的颠覆，象后来在已经是独立国家的法国 和俄国所爆发的革命那样。
革命带来了重大的变化，但并非翻天覆地，所发生的只是进化 的加速，而不是一场彻底的革命；在冲突期间，人们仍然上班、做礼拜、结婚、玩耍。 多数人并没有受到实际战斗的严重影响。 许多较闭塞的社区对这场战争几乎一无所知。美国 独立战争宣布了三个现代国家的诞生，其中一个是加拿大。
加拿大的第一大批讲英语的流 入人口来自于成千上万英王的效忠者， 这些人从美国逃到了加拿大。 另一个国家是澳大利 亚，因为美国不再是容纳罪犯和欠债者的国度了，澳大利亚就变成了一个惩治罪犯的殖民地(注：独立战争前，英国政府将罪犯流放到美国)。 第三个国家就是美国，它完全建立在共和原则基础上。即使政治上的颠覆也不如人们可能想象的那样具有革命性。 在一些州，特 别是康涅狄格和罗德岛，战争基本上只是承认了已经存在的殖民地的自治。 四处被驱逐的 英国官员都被本土的统治阶级所替代，这个统治阶级迅速地以地方权力机关来替代国王和议 会。 >04 Suburbanization
If by "suburb" is meant an urban margin that grows more rapidly than its already developed interior, the process of suburbanization began during the emergence of the industrial city in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Before that period the city was a small highly compact cluster in which people moved about on foot and goods were conveyed by horse and cart.
But the early factories built in the 1830's and 1840's were located along waterways and near railheads at the edges of cities, and housing was needed for the thousands of people drawn by the prospect of employment. In time, the factories were surrounded by proliferating mill towns of apartments and row houses that abutted the older, main cities. As a defense against this encroachment and to enlarge their tax bases, the cities appropriated their industrial neighbors. In1854, for example, the city of Philadelphia annexed most of Philadelphia County. Similar municipal maneuvers took place in Chicago and in New York. Indeed, most great cities of the United States achieved such status only by incorporating the communities along their borders.
With the acceleration of industrial growth came acute urban crowding and accompanying social stress -- conditions that began to approach disastrous proportions when, in 1888, the first commercially successful electric traction line was developed. Within a few years the horse-drawn trolleys were retired and electric streetcar networks crisscrossed and connected every major urban area, fostering a wave of suburbanization that transformed the compact industrial city into a dispersed metropolis.This first phase of mass-scale suburbanization was reinforced by the simultaneous emergence of the urban Middle Class, whose desires for homeownership in neighborhoods far from the aging inner city were satisfied by the developers of single-family housing tracts.
郊区的发展 如果"郊区"指的是比已建好的城市内部发展更为迅速的城市边缘地带，那 么郊区化可以说始于 1825 年至 1850 年工业化城市出现期间。
在这之前，城市只是高度密 集的小聚居群。 在其中，人们步行走动，商品靠马车来运送。 但是建于 18 世纪三四十年 代的早期工厂位于城边的航道和铁路附近，被工作机会吸引到这里的成千上万的人们需要住房。 渐渐地，在与旧有的主要城区相毗邻的地方，不断涌现出由排房和公寓楼组成的工人 聚居区，包围了工厂。作为对这种侵蚀的自卫，也为了扩大它们收税的地域范围，城市吞并 了工业化的临近地带，比如 1854 年费城的城区就兼并了费县的绝大部分地区。 相似的城市 化也发生在芝加哥和纽约。 今天很多美国的大城市其实就是靠吞并它们附近的边缘地区而 变成大都会的。随着工业化的加速发展，城市里出现了严重拥挤和相伴而来的社会压力。 当1888 年第一条商业上成功的电气化铁轨被制造出来时，压力开始接近危机的程度。 几年之内，马车就被废弃了，电车网相互交织连
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接着各个重要的城区，从而形成了一种郊区化的潮 流，即密集的工业城市转变成了分散的都市。
此时城市中产阶级的出现进一步加强了第一 波大规模郊区化。 这些中产阶级希望在远离老旧城市的地区拥有住宅，单一家庭住宅地区 的开发者满足了他们的愿望。
>5 Types of Speech
Standard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used, and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any situation regardless of the level of formality. As such, these words and expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries. Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that are understood by almost all speakers of a language and used in informal speech or writing, but not considered appropriate for more formal situations. Almost all idiomatic expressions are colloquial language. Slang, however, r efers to words and expressions understood by a large number of speakers but not accepted as good, formal usage by the majority. Colloquial expressions and even slang may be found in standard dictionaries but will be so identified. Both colloquial usage and slang are more common in speech than in writing.
Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary popularity followed by obscurity. In some cases, the majority never accepts certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their collective memories. Every generation seems to require its own set of words to describe familiar objects and events.
It has been pointed out by a number of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary for the creation of a large body of slang expressions. First, the introduction and acceptance of new objects and situations in the society; second, a diverse population with a large number of subgroups; third, association among the subgroups and the majority population
Finally, it is worth noting that the terms "standard" "colloquial" and "slang" exist only as abstract labels for scholars who study language. Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language will be aware that they are using colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers of English will, during appropriate situations, select and use all three types of expressions.
语言的类型 标准用法包括那些为使用这种语言的大多数人在任何场合下理解、使用和 接受的词和短语，而不论该场合是否正式。
这些词和短语的意义已很确定并被列入了标准 词典中。 相反，俗语是指那些几乎所有讲这种语言的人都理解并在非正式的口头或书面中 使用，却不适用于更正规的一些场合的词和短语。 几乎所有的习惯用语都属于俗语，而俚 语指的是为很多讲这种语言的人理解但大多数人不把它们列入好的、正式用法之内的词和短 语；俗语甚至俚语都可能在标准字典中查到，但是字典中会标明它们的性质。
俗语和俚语 词汇的应用都是口头较多、笔头较少。俗语用法经常地被接受为标准用法。 一些俚语也变 成了标准用法，但另外一些俚语只经历了短暂的流行，而后就被弃之不用了。 有时候，多 数人从来不接受某些俚语，但是他们把这些俚语保存到集中记忆中。
每一代人似乎都需要 独有的一套词汇来描述熟知的物体和事件。 很多语言学家指出，大量俚语的形成需要三个 文化条件：第一，对社会中新事物的引入和接受；第二，一个由大量子群构成的多样化人口； 第三，各子群与多数人口之间的联系。最后需要提到的是，"标准语"、"俗语"和"俚语"这些 术语只是对研究语言的专家才有用的抽象标签。 不论何种语言，只会有很小一部分使用者能够意识到他们是在使用俗语或俚语。 讲英语的多数人能够在适当的场合中选择使用所有 这三种语言类型。
06 The Language of Music
A painter hangs his or her finished picture on a wall, and everyone can see it. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it is performed.
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Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for the composer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs as long and as arduous a training to become a performer as a medical student needs to become a doctor. Most training is concerned with technique, for musicians have to have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a ballet dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords would be inadequate without controlled muscular support. String players practice moving the fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the bow to and fro with the right arm -- two entirely different movements.
Singers and instrumentalists have to be able to get every note perfectly in tune. Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes are already there, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner's responsibility to tune the instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties: the hammers that hit the strings have to be coaxed not to sound like percussion, and each overlapping tone has to sound clear.
This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student conductors: they have to learn to know every note of the music and how it should sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sounds with fanatical but selfless authority. Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in the language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in any century.
音乐的语言
画家将已完成的作品挂在墙上，每个人都可以观赏到。 作曲家写完了一部作品，得由 演奏者将其演奏出来，其他人才能得以欣赏。因为作曲家是如此完全地依赖于职业歌手和职 业演奏者，所以职业歌手和职业演奏者肩上的担子可谓不轻。
一名学音乐的学生要想成为 一名演奏者，需要经受长期的、严格的训练，就象一名医科的学生要成为一名医生一样。 绝 大多数的训练是技巧性的。
音乐家们控制肌肉的熟练程度，必须达到与运动员或巴蕾舞演 员相当的水平。 歌手们每天都练习吊嗓子，因为如果不能有效地控制肌肉的话，他们的声 带将不能满足演唱的要求。 弦乐器的演奏者练习的则是在左手的手指上下滑动的同时，用 右手前后拉动琴弓--两个截然不同的动作。歌手和乐器演奏者必须使所有的音符完全相同协 调。 钢琴家们则不用操这份心，因为每个音符都已在那里等待着他们了。
给钢琴调音是调 音师的职责。 但调音师们也有他们的难处： 他们必须耐心地调理敲击琴弦的音锤，不能让 音锤发出的声音象是打击乐器，而且每个交叠的音都必须要清晰。如何得到乐章清晰的纹理 是学生指挥们所面临的难题：他们必须学会了解音乐中的每一个音及其发音之道。 他们还 必须致力于以热忱而又客观的权威去控制这些音符。除非是和音乐方面的知识和悟性结合起 来，单纯的技巧没有任何用处。
艺术家之所以伟大在于他们对音乐语言驾轻就熟，以致于 可以满怀喜悦地演出写于任何时代的作品。
>07 Schooling and Education
It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between schooling and education implied by this remark is important.
Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling. Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning. The agents of education can range from a revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished scientist.
Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education quite often produces surprises. A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions. People are engaged in education from infancy on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integral part of one's entire life.
Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to
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the next.
Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on. The slices of reality t hat are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the workings of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that they are not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with.
There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.
上学与受教育
在美国，人们通常认为上学是为了受教育。 而现在却有人认为孩子们上学打断了他们 受教育的过程。 这种观念中的上学与受教育之间的区别非常重要。
与上学相比，教育更具 开放性，内容更广泛。 教育不受任何限制。 它可以在任何场合下进行，在淋浴时，在工作 时，在厨房里或拖拉机上。
它既包括在学校所受的正规教育，也包括一切非正规教育。 传 授知识的人可以是德高望重的老者，可以是收音机里进行政治辩论的人们，可以是小孩子， 也可以是知名的科学家。 上学读书多少有点可预见性，而教育往往能带来意外的发现。 与 陌生人的一次随意谈话可能会使人认识到自己对其它宗教其实所知甚少。
人们从幼时起就 开始受教育。 因此，教育是一个内涵很丰富的词，它自始至终伴随人的一生，早在人们上 学之前就开始了。
教育应成为人生命中不可缺少的一部分。然而，上学却是一个特定的形 式化了的过程。 在不同场合下，它的基本形式大同小异。 在全国各地，孩子们几乎在同一 时刻到达学校，坐在指定的座位上，由一位成年人传授知识，使用大致相同的教材，做作业， 考试等等。
他们所学的现实生活中的一些片断，如字母表或政府的运作，往往受到科目范 围的限制。
例如，高中生们知道，在课堂上他们没法弄清楚他们社区里政治问题的真情， 也不会了解到最新潮的电影制片人在做哪些尝试。
学校教育这一形式化的过程是有特定的限制的。
>08 The Definition of "Price"
Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed among buyers. The price system of the United States is a complex network composed
of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor, professional, transportation, and public-utility services. The interrelationships of all these prices make up the"system" of prices. The price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad, complicated system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or less upon everything else. If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define "price", many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words, that price is the money value of a product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction. This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For a complete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much more than the amount of money involved must be known. Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, return privileges, and other factors. In other words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the factors that comprise the total "package" being exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price.
"价格"的定义 价格决定资源的使用方式。 价格也是有限的产品与服务在买方中的配给 手段。
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美国的价格系统是复杂的网状系统，包括经济生活中一切产品买卖的价格，也包括 名目繁多的各种服务，诸如劳动力、专职人员、交通运输、公共事业等服务的价格。
所有 这些价格的内在联系构成了价格系统。 任何一种个别产品或服务的价格都与这个庞大而复 杂的系统密切相关，而且或多或少地受到系统中其它成份的制约。如果随机挑选一群人，问 问他们如何定义"价格"，许多人会回答价格就是根据卖方提供的产品或服务，买方向其付出 的钱数。
换句话说，价格就是市场交易中大家认同的产品或服务的货币量。 该定义就其本 身来说自有其道理。
但要获得对价格在任何一桩交易中的完整认识，就必须考虑到大量" 非货币"因素的影响。 买卖双方不但要清楚交易中的钱数，而且要非常熟悉交易物的质量和 数量，交易的时间、地点，采用哪种形式付款，有怎样的缓付和优惠，对交易物的质量保证、 交货条款、退赔权利等等。
也就是说，为了能估算索价，买卖双方必须通晓构成交易物价 格的通盘细节。
>09Electricity
The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric lights, radio, televisions, and telephones t hat it is hard to imagine what life would be like without them. When there is a power failure, people grope about in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the streets because there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent refrigerators.
Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a little more than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been experimenting in this field for millions of years. Scientists are discovering more and more that the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity.
All living cells send out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats, it sends out pulses of record; they form an
electrocardiogram, which a doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working. The brain, too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an electroencephalogram. The electric currents generated by most living cells are extremely small -- often so small that sensitive instruments are needed to record them. But in some animals, certain muscle cells have become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cells are linked together, the effects can be astonishing.
The electric eel is an amazing storage battery. It can send a jolt of as much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it lives. (An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.) As many as four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel's body are specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it can deliver corresponds roughly to the length of its body.
电
当今时代是电气时代。 人们对电灯、收音机、电视和电话早已司空见惯以致很难想 象没有它们生活会变成什么样。 当停电时，人们在摇曳不定的烛光下暗中摸索； 因没有红 绿灯的指示，汽车在道路上迟疑不前；冰箱也停止工作，导致食物变质。人们只是在两个世 纪前一点才开始了解电的使用原理，自然界却显然在这方面经历过了数百万年。 科学家不 断发现许多生物世界里可能有益于人类的关于电的有趣秘密。所有生物细胞都会发出微小的 电脉冲。 当心脏跳动时，把它发出的脉冲记录下来就成了心电图，这可让医生了解心脏的 工作状况。大脑也发出脑电波，这可在脑电图上记录下来。
许多生物细胞发出的电流都是 极微小的，小到要用灵敏仪器才能记录和测量。 但一些动物的某些肌肉细胞能转化成一个 个发电机，以致完全失去肌肉细胞的功能。
这种细胞大量地连接在一起时产生的效果将是 非常令人吃惊的。电鳗就是一种令人惊异的蓄电池。 它可以在水中发出相当于 800 伏特电 压电流(家庭用户的电压只有 120 伏特)。 在电鳗的身体里，多至五分之四的细胞都专门用 来发电，而且发出的电流的强度大约和它身体的长度成正比。
>10 The Beginning of Drama
There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human
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beings viewed the natural forces of the world - even the seasonal changes - as unpredictable, and they sought through various means to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.Those who believe that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used. Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium." In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect -- success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun -- as an actor might.
Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this view tales (about the hunt, war, or other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds.
戏剧的起源 关于古希腊戏剧的起源存在着多种理论，其中一个最普遍为人接受的理论 假设认为戏剧从仪式演化而来。
这个观点是这样进行论证的：一开始，人类把世界上的自 然力量，甚至季节的变化都看成是不可预料的。 他们试图通过各种方式去控制这些未知的、 令人恐惧的力量。 那些似乎带来了满意结果的手段就被保留下来并且重复直到这些手段固 化为不变的仪式，最后产生了能够解释或者掩盖这些仪式神秘性的故事。
随着时间的推移， 一些仪式被废弃了，但这些后来被称作神话的故事流传下来并且为艺术和戏剧提供了素材。 认为戏剧从仪式演化而来的人们还认为那些仪式包含了戏剧的基本因素，因为音乐、舞蹈、 面具和服装几乎经常被使用，而且，必须为演出提供一个合适的地点；如果不是整个社区共 同参加演出，经常在"演出区"和"观众席"之间划分出明显的分界。
另外，仪式中还有演员， 而且宗教领袖通常承担演出任务，因为在仪式的执行中避免错误的发生被认为有相当大的重 要性；他们经常带着面具，穿着服装象演员那样扮演其它人、动物或超自然的生灵，用动作 来表演以达到所需要的效果，比如打猎的成功或战斗的胜利、将至的雨、太阳的复活。 最 后这些戏剧性的表演从宗教活动中分离了出来。
另一个追溯戏剧起源的理论认为它来自人 们对叙述故事的兴趣。 根据这个观点，故事(关于狩猎、战争或者其它伟绩)是逐渐丰富起 来的。
首先通过一个讲解人来运用模仿、表演和对话，然后再由不同的人扮演各自的角色； 另一个与之紧密相关的理论将戏剧的起源追溯至舞蹈，这些舞蹈大体上是有节奏感的和体操 式的那一类，或者是对动物动作和声音的模仿。
>11 Archaeology
Archaeology is a source of history, not just a humble auxiliary discipline. Archaeological data are historical documents in their own right, not mere illustrations to written texts. Just as much as any other historian, an archaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute the process that has created the human world in which we live -- and us ourselves in so far as
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we are each creatures of our age and social environment. Archaeological data are all c hanges in the material world resulting from human action or, more succinctly, the fossilized results of human b ehavior. The sum total of these constitutes what may be called the archaeological record. This record exhibits certain peculiarities and deficiencies the consequences of which produce a rather superficial contrast between a rchaeological history and the more familiar kind based upon written records.
Not all human behavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear as vibrations in the air are certainly human changes in the material world and may be of great historical significance. Yet they leave no sort of trace in the archaeological records unless they are captured by a dictaphone or written down by a clerk. The movement of troops on the battlefield may "change the course of history," but this is equally ephemeral from the archaeologist's standpoint. What is perhaps worse, most organic materials are perishable. Everything made of wood, hide, wool, linen, grass, hair, and similar materials will decay and vanish in dust in a few years or centuries, save under very exceptional conditions. In a relatively brief period the archaeological record is reduced to mere scraps of stone, bone, glass, metal, and earthenware. Still modern archaeology, by applying appropriate techniques and comparative methods, aided by a few lucky finds from peat-bogs, deserts, and frozen soils, is able to fill up a good deal of the gap.
考古学
考古学是历史学的一个来源，而不是地位卑微的辅助学科。 考古学资料本身也是一种 历史文献，而不仅仅是文字资料的例证。 正象任何一位历史学家那样，考古学家研究调查 并尽力去重构一个过程。 这个过程创造了我们生活的人类世界，也创造了我们自身，因为 我们都是我们所处的时代和社会环境的产物。 考古学的资料就是人类行为所造成的物质变 化。 更简洁地说，是石化了的人类行为。 这些变化的总和构成了我们所说的考古学记录。 这些记录自有其独特和不足之处，因而导致人们对考古历史和更熟悉的文字记载历史进行相 当肤浅的对比。
并不是所有的人类行为都留下化石。 我说的话，你通过空气振动听见，这 当然是人类造成的物质变化，也可能有重大的历史意义，但这些话在考古学中未留下丝毫痕 迹，除非有人用录音机录下来或文书把这些话写了下来。 战场上军队的行动可能"改变历史 的进程"，但从考古学的观点来看，这同样是难以捕捉的；可能更糟的是，多数有机物质会 腐烂。 任何由木头、生皮、绒线、亚麻、草、毛发以及相似物质做成的东西除非在一些非 常特殊的条件下，几年或几个世纪以后，会在尘土中腐烂并消失。 在短时期内，能留下考 古记录的东西也都会退化为石头、骨头、玻璃、金属和陶器的碎片。 然而，现代考古学通 过运用适当的技术和比较的方法，在从泥炭、沙漠和冻土中所获得的一些幸运发现的辅助下， 能够填充这个空缺的很大部分。
>12 Museums
From Boston to Los Angeles, from New York City to Chicago to Dallas, museums are either planning, building, or wrapping up wholesale expansion programs. These programs already have radically altered facades and floor plans or are expected to do so in the not-too-distant future.In New York City alone, six major institutions have spread up and out into the air space and neighborhoods around them or are preparing to do so.
The reasons for this confluence of activity are complex, but one factor is a consideration everywhere -- space. With collections expanding, with the needs and functions of museums changing, empty space has become a very precious commodity.
Probably nowhere in the country is this more true than at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has needed additional space for decades and which received its last significant facelift ten years ago. Because of the space crunch, the Art Museum has become increasingly cautious in considering acquisitions and donations of art, in some cases passing up opportunities to strengthen its collections.
Deaccessing -- or selling off -- works of art has taken on new importance because of the museum's space problems. And increasingly, curators have been forced to juggle gallery space, rotating one masterpiece into public view w hile another is sent to storage.
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Despite the clear need for additional gallery and storage space, however, "the museum has no plan, no plan to break out of its envelope in the next fifteen years," according to Philadelphia Museum of Art's president.
博物馆 从波士顿到洛杉机，从纽约到芝加哥、到达拉斯，所有的博物馆或者正在筹划、建造或者正在完成大规模的扩建计划。 这些计划或者已经根本性地改变了博物馆门面与展厅的设 计，或者预期在不久的将来会这样做。 单单在纽约市，六个主要机构或者已经向空中和周 围扩展，或者正准备这样做。大家一致行动的原因是复杂多样的，但其中的一个因素是普遍 考虑的空间问题。 随着收藏品的增多，也随着博物馆的需要和功能的变化，空间已经变成 了一项非常珍贵的商品。在我国，也许没有任何其他地方比费城艺术博物馆更符合这个事实。 这个博物馆几十年来一直需要额外的空间，十年前进行了最后一次重大的翻新。 由于空间 紧缺，该艺术博物馆在考虑购买与受赠艺术品已越来越谨慎，有时甚至放弃增强艺术收藏的 机会。由于博物馆的空间问题，将艺术品脱手或者说卖掉已经有了新的重要意义。 博物馆 馆长们被迫巧妙轮换利用陈列馆的空间，轮流着把一些艺术杰作向公众展出，而把另一些送 入存储室中。虽然对额外的陈列室和存储室空间需要很明显，但据费城艺术博物馆经理讲："博物馆还没有在未来十五年打破这个束缚的计划。"
>13 Skyscrapers and Environment
In the late 1960's, many people in North America turned their attention to environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widely criticized. Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in a city often overburdens public transportation and parking lot capacities.
Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120, 000 kilowatts -- enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day.
Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or gain) through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times that through a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen the strain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of skyscrapers have begun to use double-glazed panels of glass, and reflective glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise the temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.
Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city's sanitation facilities, too. If fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would alone generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year -- as much as a city the size of Stanford, Connecticut, which has a population of more than 109, 000.
摩天大楼与环境
60 年代后期，许多北美人把注意力转向了环境问题，那些崭新的玻璃钢摩天大楼受到 了广泛的批评。
生态学家指出，城市中密集的高层建筑经常给公共交通与停车场的承载能 力造成过重的负担。摩天大楼还是电能的过度消费者与浪费者。 最近的某一年，纽约市摩 天写字楼 1，700 万英尺办公面积的增加使电能的最高日需求量提高了 120，000 千瓦。 这 些电能足以供纽约的整个奥尔巴尼市使用一天。玻璃表面的摩天大楼特别地浪费。 通过半 英寸的平板玻璃墙壁损失(或增加)的热量是典型的加入绝缘板的石墙所允许的热量损失(或 增加)的十倍以上。 为了减轻取暖设备或空调设备的压力，摩天大楼的建造者们已经开始使 用双面上釉的玻璃镶板和涂上了金色或银色反光薄膜的反光玻璃，来减少强光照射和热量的 增加；但是，镜面的摩天大楼会提高周围空气的温度并会对附近的建筑物产生影响。摩天大 楼也对城市的卫生设施造成了沉重的压力。
单单纽约市的二个世界贸易中心大楼如果完全 被占满的话，每年就会产生 2，250，000 加仑的污水。 这相当于康涅狄格州的斯坦福市这 样大的城市一年所产生的污水量，而康州的斯坦福市拥有 109，000 人口。
>14 A Rare Fossil Record
The preservation of embryos and juveniles is a rate occurrence in the fossil record. The tiny, delicate skeletons are usually scattered by scavengers or destroyed by weathering before they can be fossilized.
Ichthyosaurs had a higher chance of being preserved than did terrestrial creatures because, as marine
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animals, they tended to live in environments less subject to erosion. Still, their fossilization required a suite of factors: a slow rate of decay of soft tissues, little scavenging by other animals, a lack of swift currents and waves to jumble
and carry away small bones, and fairly rapid burial. Given these factors, some areas have become a treasury of well-preserved ichthyosaur fossils.
The deposits at Holzmaden, Germany, present an interesting case for analysis. The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marine shales deposited about 190 million years ago. Over the years, thousands of specimens of marine reptiles, fish and invertebrates have been recovered from these rocks. The quality of preservation is outstanding, but what is even more impressive is the number of ichthyosaur fossils containing preserved embryos.
Ichthyosaurs with embryos have been reported from 6 different levels of the shale in a small area around Holzmaden, suggesting that a specific site was used by large numbers of ichthyosaurs repeatedly over time. The embryos are quite advanced in their physical development; their paddles, for example, are already well formed. One specimen is even
preserved in the birth canal. In addition, the shale contains the remains of many newborns that are between 20 and 30 inches long.
Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when they are so rare elsewhere? The quality of preservation is almost unmatched and quarry operations have been carried out carefully with an awareness of the value of the fossils. But these factors do not account for the interesting question of how there came to be such a concentration of pregnant ichthyosaurs in a particular place very close to their time of giving birth.
罕见的化石记录 胚胎与幼体被保存下来在化石记录中是少见的事情。微小纤细的骨骼 通常在石化前就被食腐肉的动物拆散了，或者被风化作用破坏掉了。 鱼龙比起陆地的动物 有更大的几率被保存下来，因为它们作为海洋动物常生活在腐蚀性较小的环境中。 但是它 们的石化需要一系列因素：软组织的腐烂速度缓慢，很少被其他动物残食，缺少混杂、冲走 小骨头的快速水流和波浪，以及相当快地被掩埋。 当这些因素存在时，某些地区就会变成 一个充满保存完好的鱼龙化石的宝库。在德国获尔兹梅登，那儿的沉积物给人们提出了一个 有趣的分析案例。
人们在黑色的、含沥青的海洋页岩中发现了约 19，000 年前沉积下来的 鱼龙化石。 几年时间内，在这些岩石中取得了数以千计的海洋爬行动物、鱼类以及无脊椎 动物的标本。 它们的保存质量非常的好，但更令人称奇的是保存下来的育有胚胎的鱼龙化 石数目。 在获尔兹梅登附近一个小地区的六个不同的页岩层中分别发现了育有胚胎的鱼龙 化石。 这表明大量的鱼龙经年累月重复使用一个特定的地点。 那些胚胎已经发育得相当完 整了。 比如，它们的蹼桨已经完全形成了。
有一个标本甚至被保存在产道中。 而且，那 块页岩包含着很多在 20 到 30 英寸之间的新生幼体的化石。为什么在其他地方那么稀少的怀孕雌兽和幼体在获尔兹梅登却那么多呢? 因为其保存质量几乎举世无双，采集工作的进行
一 直是一丝不苟的。大家都认识到这些化石的价值极其珍贵，但这些因素并不能解释这个有 趣的问题： 为什么在一个特定的地点会如此集中地出现即将临产的怀孕鱼龙群呢?
>15 The Nobel Academy
For the last 82 years, Sweden's Nobel Academy has decided who will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, thereby determining who will be elevated from the great and the near great to the immortal. But today the Academy is coming under heavy criticism both from the without and from within. Critics contend that the selection of the winners o ften has less to do with true writing ability than with the peculiar internal politics of the Academy and of Sweden itself. According to Ingmar Bjorksten, the cultural editor for one of the country's two major newspapers, the prize continues to represent "what people call a very Swedish exercise: reflecting Swedish tastes." The Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism in its selection by asserting that its physical distance from the great literary capitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from outside influences. This may well be true, but critics respond that this very distance may also be responsible for the Academy's inability to perceive accurately authentic trends in the literary world.
Regardless of concerns over the selection process, however, it seems that the prize will continue to survive both as an indicator of the literature that we most highly praise, and as an elusive goal that writers seek. If for no other reason, the prize will continue to be desirable for the financial rewards that accompany it; not only is the cash prize itself considerable, but it also dramatically increases sales of an author's books.
诺贝尔委员会
过去的 82 年里，瑞典的诺贝尔委员会决定了谁将获得诺贝尔文学奖，因此也就决定了谁将从伟大或近乎伟大荣升为不朽。
但在今天，该委员会却遭到了评选委员会内外的猛烈批评。批评者们争论说："评选获奖者时，起作用更大的不是真实的写作能力，而是该委员会以及瑞典特有的内部政治。按照瑞典两家主要报纸之一的文化版编辑 Ingmar Bjorksten 的说法，该文学奖仍然是"人们所说的一种非常瑞典式的做为：反映瑞典口味"。对于其评选过程中目光短浅的指责，该委员会辩护说，该委员会与世界几大文学之都相距遥远，实际上使该委员会免受外来的干扰。
这也许是对的，但批评者们反驳说，也正因为相距如此遥远，该委员会才不能准确地把握文学界的真正趋势。尽管对评选程序存在着关注，该文学奖将继续作为世人最为推崇的文学的标志而存在，并将继续是作家们难以达到却又会不断追逐的目标。如果不考虑其他因素，而仅仅考虑与之俱来的经济利益，该奖也将继续为人所渴求：
这不仅因为该奖本身就是一笔可观的现金收入，而且该奖还将极大地增加一个作家的著作的销量。
>16 The War between Britain and France
In the late eighteenth century, battles raged in almost every corner of Europe, as well as in the Middle East, South Africa, the West Indies, and Latin America. In reality, however, there was only one major war during this time, the war between Britain and France. All other battles were ancillary to this larger conflict, and were often at least partially related to its antagonists' goals and strategies. France sought total domination of Europe. This goal was obstructed by British independence and Britain's efforts throughout the continent to thwart Napoleon; t hrough treaties, Britain built coalitions (not dissimilar in concept to today's NATO) guaranteeing British participation in all major European conflicts. These two antagonists were poorly matched, insofar as they had very unequal strengths: France was predominant on land, Britain at sea. The French knew that, short of defeating the British navy, their only hope of victory was to close all the ports of Europe to British ships.
Accordingly, France set out to overcome Britain by extending its military domination from Moscow to Lisbon, from Jutland to Calabria. All of this entailed tremendous risk, because France did not have the military resources to control this much territory and still protect itself and maintain order at home.
French strategists calculated that a navy of 150 ships would provide the force necessary to defeat the British navy. Such a force would give France a three-to-two advantage over Britain. This advantage was deemed necessary because of Britain's superior sea skills and technology, and also because Britain would be fighting a defensive war, allowing it to win with fewer forces. Napoleon never lost sight of his goal, because Britain represented the last substantial impediment to his control of Europe. As his force neared that goal, Napoleon grew increasingly impatient and began planning an immediate attack.
英法战争
在 18 世纪后期，战争爆发于欧洲大陆的几乎每一个角落，在中东、南非、西印度群岛、拉丁美洲亦都是如此。
然而实际上，在这一时期只有一场主要的战争，那就是英法之间的战争。所有其他战争都服从于这一更大的争端，至少是与这两个对手的目标和战略有某些关联。
法国力图统治整个欧洲，而英国的自主及其力图在整个欧洲大陆挫败拿破仑的种种努力都是法国实现这一目标的障碍。英国通过条约建立了联盟(和今天北约的概念没有什么不同)以保证英国插手所有欧洲的主要争端。
这两个对头并不是一对好对手，因为他们的力量极不均衡：法兰西在陆地上称王，英格兰则在海上称霸。法国人《写作160篇》全面涵盖当年可考话题，经典话题精心选材，
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明白，如果不能击败英 国海军，他们胜利的唯一希望就是让欧洲的所有港口都对英国舰船关闭。 于是，法国将其 军事占领从莫斯科延伸到里斯本，从尤特兰延伸到卡拉布里亚，企图以此来制服英国。 所 有这些行动包含着巨大的风险，因为法国并不具备足够的军事资源，来控制这么多地盘，同 时又能保护自己，维持国内的秩序。法国战略家们的算盘是，其海军若拥有 150 艘军舰，则 将足以击跨英国海军。 这样的武力将使法国对英国具有 3 比 2 的优势。 这种优势被认为是 必不可少的，因为英国人具有超群的海上技能和技术，并且打的是一场防御战争，使它能以 少胜多。
拿破仑从未忘却他的目标，因为英国是他统治全欧的最后一个重大的障碍。 随着 他的力量越来越靠近这个目标，拿破仑变得越来越不耐烦起来，开始策划立即攻击。
>17 Evolution of Sleep
Sleep is very ancient. In the electroencephalographic sense we share it with all the primates and almost all the o ther mammals and birds: it may extend back as far as the reptiles.
There is some evidence that the two types of sleep, dreaming and dreamless, depend on the life-style of the animal, and that predators are statistically much more likely to dream than prey, which are in turn much more likely to experience dreamless sleep. In dream sleep, the animal is powerfully immobilized and remarkably unresponsive to external stimuli. Dreamless sleep is much shallower, and we have all witnessed cats or dogs cocking their ears to a sound when apparently fast asleep. The fact that deep dream sleep is rare among prey today seems clearly to be a product of natural selection, and it makes sense that today, when sleep is highly evolved, the stupid animals are less frequently immobilized by deep sleep than the smart ones. But why should they sleep deeply at all? Why should a state of such deep immobilization ever have evolved? Perhaps one useful hint about the original function of sleep is to be found in the fact that dolphins and whales and aquatic mammals in general seem to sleep very little. There is, by and large, no place to hide in the ocean. Could it be that, rather than increasing an animal's vulnerability, the function of sleep is to decrease it? Wilse Webb of the University of Florida and Ray Meddis of London University have suggested this to be the case. It is conceivable that animals who are too stupid to be quiet on their own initiative are, during periods of high risk, immobilized by the implacable arm of sleep. The point seems particularly clear for the young of predatory animals. This is an interesting notion and probably at least partly true.
睡眠的进化
睡眠是古老的。 从脑电图上看，我们人类和所有灵长目动物以及几乎所有的哺乳动物 和鸟类都一样需要睡眠；甚至爬行类动物也有睡眠。 有证据显示，有梦睡眠和无梦睡眠这两种类型的睡眠取决于该动物的生活方式。 从统计上看，食肉动物比被捕食动物有更多的 有梦睡眠，而被捕食动物更多地无梦睡眠。
动物在有梦睡眠时，被有效地解除动作能力， 并且对外界刺激缺乏反应。 无梦睡眠则要浅得多。 我们都看到过猫和狗在显然的酣睡中， 有一点响动耳朵就会竖起来。 被捕食动物很少有深度的有梦睡眠，这看来显然是自然选择 的结果。
而且这一点是有道理的：当睡眠高度进化以后，愚笨的动物比聪明的动物更少在 深度睡眠状态下丧失动作能力。 但是动物为什么要进入深度睡眠呢?为什么这样的无动作状 态也会进化出来呢? 海豚、鲸鱼以及水生哺乳动物睡眠都极少，这一事实可以给睡眠的根本 功能提供有用的线索。 海洋中是没有藏身之处的。 会不会是这样，睡眠不但不增加动物受 伤害的可能性，反而是减少了这种可能性呢?佛罗里达大学的 Wilse Webb 和伦敦大学的 Ray Meddis 认为情况就是如此。 可以想像得出，在危险的时刻，那些由于太愚笨而不能自动保 持安静的动物，会不由自主地变得动弹不得。 这一点在食肉动物的幼兽身上表现得特别明 显。 这是一个很有意思的看法，它至少部分是正确的。
>18 Modern American Universities
Before the 1850's, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.
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Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university. In Germany a different kind of university had developed. The German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals. Between midcentury and the end of the 1800's, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced
study. Some of them returned to become presidents of venerable colleges -- Harvard, Yale, Columbia -- and transform them into modern universities. T he new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor's own research was presented in class. Graduate training leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced. With the establishment of the seminar system, graduate students learned to question, analyze, and conduct their own research.
At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old,
constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own courses of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world. Paying close heed to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.
现代美国大学
19 世纪 50 年代以前美国有一些小的学院，大多数成立于殖民时期。 它们是与教会挂钩的小机构，主要目的是培养学生的道德品行。 当时在欧洲各地，高等教育机构已经发展 起来，用的是一个古老的名称--大学。
德国已经发展出一种不同类型的大学。 德国大学关 心的主要是创造知识和传播知识，而不是道德教育。 从世纪中叶到世纪末，有 9000 多名美 国青年因不满国内所受的教育而赴德深造。 他们中的一些人回国后成为一些知名学府--哈 佛、耶鲁、哥伦比亚的校长并且把这些学府转变成了现代意义的大学。
新校长们断绝了和 教会的关系，聘请了新型的教职员，聘用教授根据的是他们在学科方面的知识，而不是正确 的信仰和约束学生的强硬手段。
新的原则是大学既要传播知识也要创造知识。 这就需要由 学者型老师组成教工队伍。 靠死记硬背和做练习来学习的方法变为德国式的讲解方法。 德国式的讲解就是由教授讲授自己的研究课题。 通过研究生性质的学习可以获得表明最高学 术造诣的古老的德国学位--博士学位。
随着讨论课制度的建立，研究生们学会了提问、分 析以及开展他们自己的研究。 同时，新式大学学校规模和课程设置完全突破了过去那种只 有数学、经典著作、美学和音乐的狭窄课程表。 哈佛大学的校长率先推出选课制度，这样 学生们就能选择自己的专业。主修领域的概念也出现了。新的目标是使大学对实际社会更有 用。
密切关注着社会上的实际需求，新的大学着意培养学生解决问题的能力。 工程系学生 成为新式教育体制下最典型的学生。学生们还被培训成为经济学家、建筑师、农学家、社会 工作人员以及教师。
>19 Children's Numerical Skills
People appear to be born to compute. The numerical skills of children develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity guiding their growth. Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impressive accuracy-- one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs. Soon they are capable of noting that they have placed five knives, spoons and forks on the table and, a bit later, that this amounts to fifteen pieces of
《写作160篇》全面涵盖当年可考话题，经典话题精心选材，
silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a desert island at birth and retrieved seven years later, he or she could enter a second-grade mathematics class without any serious problems of intellectual adjustment.
Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive psychologists has illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on which intellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowly grasped -- or, as the case might be, bumped into -- concepts that adults take for granted, as they refused, for instance, to concede that quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short stout glass into a tall thin one.
Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, asked to count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or red pencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total. Such studies have suggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and with effort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract numbers - the idea of a oneness, a twoness, a threeness that applies to any class of objects and is a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically demanding than setting a table - is itself far from innate.
儿童的数学能力
人似乎生来就会计算。 孩子们使用数字的技能发展得如此之早和如此必然，很容易让 人想象有一个内在的精确而成熟的数字钟在指导他们的成长。
孩子们在学会走路和说话后 不久，就能以令人惊叹的准确布置桌子--五把椅子前面分别摆上一把刀、一个汤匙、一把叉子。 很快地，他们就能知道他们已在桌面上摆放了五把刀、五个汤匙、五把叉子。 没有多 久，他们就又能知道这些东西加起来总共是 15 把银餐具。
如此这般地掌握了加法之后，他 们又转向减法。 有一种设想几乎顺理成章，那就是，即使一个孩子一出生就被隔绝到荒岛上，七年后返回世间，也能直接上小学二年级的数学课，而不会碰到任何智力调整方面的大 麻烦。当然，事实并没有这么简单。
本世纪认知心理学家的工作已经揭示了智力发展所依 赖的日常学习的微妙形式。 他们观察到孩子们缓慢掌握那些成年人认为理所当然的概念的 过程，或者是孩子们偶然遇到这些概念的过程。 他们也观察到孩子们拒绝承认某些常识的 情况。 比如： 孩子们拒绝承认当水从短而粗的瓶中倒入细而长的瓶子中时，水的数量没有 变化。 心理学家们而后又展示一个例子， 即：让孩子们数一堆铅笔时，他们能顺利地报出 蓝铅笔或红铅笔的数目，但却需诱导才能报出总的数目。 此类研究表明：数学基础是经过 逐渐努力后掌握的。
他们还表示抽象的数字概念，如可表示任何一类物品并且是在做比摆 桌子有更高数学要求的任何事时都必备的一、
二、三意识，远远不是天生就具备的。
>20 The Historical Significance of American Revolution
The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human actions so complex that it is always hazardous to attempt to represent events covering a number of years, a multiplicity of persons, and distant localities as the expression of one intellectual or social movement; yet the historical process which culminated in the ascent of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency can be regarded as the outstanding example not only of the birth of a new way of life but of nationalism as a new way of life. The American Revolution represents the link between the seventeenth century, in which modern England became conscious of itself, and the awakening of modern Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. It may seem strange that the march of history should have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but only in the North American colonies could a struggle for civic liberty lead also to the foundation of a new nation.
Here, in the popular rising against a "tyrannical" government, the fruits were more than the securing of a freer c onstitution. They included the growth of a nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots of common descent, a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or dynasty. With the American nation, for the first time, a nation was born, not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world.
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美国革命的历史意义 历史的进程是如此错综复杂，人类行为的动机是如此令人费解，以至于想把那些时间跨度大，涉及人数多，空间范围广的事件描述成为一个智者或一场社会运动的表现的企图是危 险的。 然而以托马斯·杰弗逊登上总统宝座为高潮的那一段历史过程可以被视为一个特殊 的例子。
在这段历史时期里不仅诞生了新的生活方式，而且民族主义成为了一种新的生活 方式。 美国独立战争成为联结 17 世纪现代英格兰的自我意识和 18 世纪末现代欧洲的觉醒 的纽带。 历史的行程需要跨越大西洋，这看起来似乎有些奇怪，但却只有在北美殖民地为 民权和自由的斗争才能导致新国家的建立。
这里，反对"暴政"的民众起义的成果不仅是获 得一个包含更多自由的宪法，还包括了一个依照人民的意愿诞生在自由中的国家的成长。这 个国家不是基于血缘、地理、君主或王朝的野心。 由于有了美国，第一次一个国家的诞生 不是发生在历史模糊的过去，而是在全世界人们的眼前。
>21 The Origin of Sports
When did sport begin? If sport is, in essence, play, the claim might be made that sport is much older than humankind, for, as we all have observed, the beasts play. Dogs and cats wrestle and play ball games.
Fishes and birds dance. The apes have simple, pleasurable games. Frolicking infants, school children playing tag, and adult arm wrestlers are demonstrating strong, transgenerational and transspecies bonds with the universe of animals - past, present, and future. Young animals, particularly, tumble, chase, run, wrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh(or so it seems) to the point of delighted exhaustion. Their play, and ours, appears to serve no other purpose than to give pleasure to the players, and apparently, to remove us temporarily from the anguish of life in earnest.
Some philosophers have claimed that our playfulness is the most noble part of our basic nature. In their generous conceptions, play harmlessly and experimentally permits us to put our creative forces, fantasy, and imagination into action. Play is release from the tedious battles against scarcity and decline which are the incessant, and inevitable, tragedies of life. This is a grand conception that excites and provokes. The holders of this view claim that the origins of our highest accomplishments - liturgy, literature, and law- can be traced to a play impulse which, paradoxically, we see most purely enjoyed by young beasts and children. Our sports, in this rather happy, nonfatalistic view of human nature, are more splendid creations of the nondatable, transspecies play impulse.
体育的起源 体育运动开始于何时?如果体育运动的本质就是游戏的话，我们就可以宣称体育运动比
人类古老，因为正如我们所观察到的，野兽也进行嬉戏。 狗和猫会扭抱玩球，鱼和鸟翩翩 起舞，猿类会进行一些简单的、愉快的游戏。
雀跃的幼儿，捉迷藏的学童和成年摔跤者展 示出人与动物界的有力的跨越世代与物种的永恒的联系--特别是幼兽，它们翻筋斗、追逐、 奔跑、扭打、模仿、嬉笑(或者看起来是)，直到愉快地精疲力尽。 他们的玩耍，同我们的 一样，似乎并没有别的目的而只是给游戏者以愉悦，暂时把我们从严肃生活的痛苦中拉出来。 一些哲学家称我们的嬉戏是我们本质中最崇高的部分。
依他们这些随意性很大的见解，游 戏无害而且实验性地允许我们的创造力、幻想和想象发挥作用。 游戏让人们从永不间断亦不可避免的生活悲剧-与乏匮和衰退进行的枯燥抗争中得到一种解脱。 这是一个令人兴奋、 给人启发的伟大见解。
这种见解的持有者宣称，我们的最高成就如宗教典礼、文学、法律 的起源可以追溯到游戏的冲动。 但令人不解的是我们看到只有幼兽和小孩子才最纯粹地享受着这种冲动。 从这种比较豁达和非宿命的人性观来看，我们的运动是超时代、跨物种的 辉煌的创造。
>22 Collectibles
Collectibles have been a part of almost every culture since ancient times. Whereas some objects have been collected for their usefulness, others have been selected for their aesthetic beauty alone. In the United States, the kinds of collectibles currently popular range from traditional objects such as stamps, coins, rare books, and art to more recent items of interest like dolls, bottles, baseball cards, and comic books.
《写作160篇》全面涵盖当年可考话题，经典话题精心选材，
Interest in collectibles has increased enormously during the past decade, in part because some collectibles have demonstrated their value as investments. Especially during cycles of high inflation, investors try to purchase
tangibles that will at least retain their current market values. In general, the most traditional collectibles will be sought because they have preserved their value over the years, there is an organized auction market for them, and they are most easily sold in the event that cash is needed. Some examples of the most stable collectibles are old masters, Chinese ceramics, stamps, coins, rare books, antique jewelry, silver, porcelain, art by well-known artists, autographs, and period furniture. Other items of more recent interest include old photograph records, old magazines, post cards, baseball cards, art glass, dolls, classic cars, old bottles, and comic books. These relatively new kinds of collectibles may actually appreciate faster as short-term investments, but may not hold their value as long-term investments. Once a collectible has had its initial play, it appreciates at a fairly steady rate, supported by an increasing number of enthusiastic collectors competing for the limited supply of collectibles that become increasingly more difficult to locate.
收藏品
从古代开始，收藏品就是文化的一部分。 一些物品因它们的有用性被收藏，而另一些 则纯粹因为它们的美被收藏。 在美国，当今流行的收藏品种类从传统物件，如邮票、硬币、 珍本书籍、艺术品，到更近期一些的有趣的东西，如布娃娃、瓶子、垒球卡、连环漫画册。
对收藏品的兴趣在过去十年中大大地增长，部分原因是一些收藏品显示出了它们的投资价 值。 尤其在高通货膨胀时期，投资者尽量购买那些至少会保持他们现有市场价值的有形资 产。 一般来说，最传统的收藏品受青睐，因为它们多年后仍保持其价值。
它们拥有完善的 拍卖市场，在需要现金的时候最容易被卖掉。 一些最稳当的收藏品是古老的画作、中国陶 器、邮票、硬币、珍本书籍、古代珠宝、银器、瓷器、著名艺术家的作品、亲笔签名和有时 代特征的家具。 其它更近期的物品有旧唱片、旧杂志、明信片、垒球卡片、彩色玻璃、布 娃娃、早期汽车、古瓶和连环画册。 作为短期投资这些相对说来较新颖的收藏品的确可能 更快地增值，但作为长期投资则可能不能保值。 一旦一件收藏品有了它第一次交易，它便 以一个相当稳定的比率增值，这个增值率受到越来越多的热情的收藏者的支持，他们为有限 的而且越来越难找到的收藏品而竞争。
>23 Henry Ford
Although Henry Ford's name is closely associated with the concept of mass production, he should receive equal credit for introducing labor practices as early as 1913 that would be considered advanced even by today's standards. Safety measures were improved, and the work day was reduced to eight hours, compared with the ten-or twelve-hour day common at the time. In order to accommodate the shorter work day, the entire factory was converted from two to three shifts.In addition, sick leaves as well as improved medical care for those injured on the job were instituted. The Ford Motor Company was one of the first factories to develop a technical school to train specialized skilled laborers and an English language school for immigrants. Some efforts were even made to hire the handicapped and provide jobs for former convicts.
The most widely acclaimed innovation was the five-dollar-a-day minimum wage that was offered in order to recruit and retain the best mechanics and to discourage the growth of labor unions. Ford explained the new wage policy in terms of efficiency and profit sharing. He also mentioned the fact that his employees would be able to purchase the automobiles that they produced -- in effect creating a market for the product. In order to qualify for the minimum wage, an employee had to establish a decent home and demonstrate good personal habits, including sobriety, thriftiness, industriousness, and dependability. Although some criticism was directed at Ford for involving himself too much in the personal lives of his employees, there can be no doubt that, at a time when immigrants were being taken advantage of in frightful ways, Henry Ford was helping many people to establish themselves in America.
《写作160篇》全面涵盖当年可考话题，经典话题精心选材，
亨利·福特 尽管亨利·福特的名字和大生产的概念相连，但他在劳工保护上得到同样的赞誉，因为
他早在 1913 年便实行了用今天的标准来衡量依然是先进的标准。 安全措施得到改进，日工 作时间从当时普遍的 10 或 12 小时减少到 8 小时。
为了适应更短的日工作时间，整个工厂 从双班变成了三班。而且，病假和改善了的工伤医疗得以制度化。 福特汽车公司是最早建立技术学校来培训专门技工和为移民开设英语学校的工厂之一。 公司甚至为雇佣残疾人和 有前科的人而作出了一些努力。最受广泛称赞的革新是实行五美元一天的最低工资。 其目 的是招收和留住那些最好的技工并阻碍工会的发展。
福特从效率和利润分享的角度来解释 这项新的工资政策。 他也提到这样一个事实，他的员工可以买他们生产的汽车--这实际上 是为其产品另开辟了一个市场。
为了够资格得到最低工资，员工必须建立一个得体的家庭 并显示出良好的个人习惯，包括节制、俭省、勤勉和可靠。 虽然有人批评福特过多地干涉 了员工的私人生活，但毫无疑问，在移民们被用恶劣的方式剥削的时代，亨利·福特却帮助 了许多人在美国扎下根来。
>24 Piano
The ancestry of the piano can be traced to the early keyboard instruments of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries -- the spinet, the dulcimer, and the virginal. In the seventeenth century the organ, the clavichord, and the harpsichord became the chief instruments of the keyboard group, a supremacy they maintained until the piano supplanted them at the end of the eighteenth century. The clavichord's tone was metallic and never powerful; nevertheless, because of the variety of tone possible to it, many composers found the clavichord a sympathetic instrument for intimate chamber music. The harpsichord with its bright, vigorous tone was the favorite instrument for supporting the bass of the small orchestra of the period and for concert use, but the character of the tone could not be varied save by mechanical or structural devices.
The piano was perfected in the early eighteenth century by a harpsichord maker in Italy(though musicologists point out several previous instances of the instrument). This instrument was called a piano e forte (soft and loud), to indicate its dynamic versatility; its strings were struck by a recoiling hammer with a felt-padded head. The wires were much heavier in the earlier instruments. A series of mechanical improvements continuing well into the nineteenth century, including the introduction of pedals to sustain tone or to soften it, the perfection of a metal frame, and steel wire of the finest quality, finally produced an instrument capable of myriad tonal effects from the most delicate harmonies to an almost orchestral fullness of sound, from a liquid, singing tone to a sharp, percussive brilliance.
钢琴
钢琴的家系可以追溯至 15 至 16 世纪早期的键盘乐器，包括小型拨弦琴、洋琴和维金娜 琴。 17 世纪时风琴、敲弦琴和拨弦琴成为键盘乐器类的主要成员。 这种至高无上的地位 一直为它们所保持，直到 18 世纪末期钢琴将它们取代。
敲弦古钢琴的音调有金属的音质， 缺乏雄劲。 然而由于它的音调变化多，许多作曲家发现对于亲切的室内乐是一种得体的乐 器。
人们最喜欢用具备明快有力音调的拨弦古钢琴来配合当时小型管弦乐团的低音乐器以 及在演奏会上演奏。 但它的音调难以变化，除非使用机械或构件装置。18世纪早期的意大 利，钢琴在一位拨琴钢琴制造者手中得到完善(尽管音乐理论家们指出有更早的例子)。 这 种乐器被称为 piano eforte (意大利语，柔和而响亮的)，以显示它有力的多样性。 演奏者用 一个头部带皮毡的弹击乐锤敲击琴弦。 更早的这种乐器之上的金属丝要重得多。 从此，持 续到 19 世纪的一系列机械上的改进，包括引入踏板以维持音调或使其柔和，改善金属框架， 以及使用最佳性能的钢丝，最终产生了一种具备无数音调效果的乐器。 这些效果涵盖了从 最精致的和声到几乎全部的管弦乐音响，从明快流畅的吟唱的音调到尖锐的打击乐器的清晰 动人的恢宏气势。
《写作160篇》全面涵盖当年可考话题，经典话题精心选材，
>25 Movie Music
Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as "silent", the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent. From the very beginning, music was regarded as an indispensable accompaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public film exhibition in the United States in February 1896, they were accompanied by piano improvisations on popular tunes. At first, the music played bore no special relationship to the films; an accompaniment of any kind was sufficient. Within a very short time, however, the incongruity of playing lively music to a solemn film became apparent, and film pianists began to take some care in matching their pieces to the mood of the film. As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a cellist, would be added to the pianist in certain cases, and in the larger movie theaters small orchestras were formed. For a number of years the selection of music for each film program rested entirely in the hands of the conductor or leader of the orchestra, and very often the principal qualification for holding such a position was not skill or taste so much as the ownership of a large personal library of musical pieces. Since the conductor seldom saw the films until the night before they were to be shown (if indeed, the conductor was lucky enough to see them then), the musical arrangement was normally improvised in the greatest hurry. To help meet this difficulty, film distributing companies started the practice of publishing suggestions for musical
accompaniments. In 1909, for example, the Edison Company began issuing with their films such indications of mood as "pleasant", "sad", "lively". The suggestions became more explicit, and so emerged the musical cue sheet containing indications of mood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise directions to show where one piece led into the next.Certain films had music especially composed for them. The most famous of these early special scores was that composed and arranged for D. W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915.
电影插曲
尽管我们习惯于将 1927 年以前的电影称为"无声电影"，但是就无声这个词完整的意义 上来说，电影从未真正的无声过，从最初开始音乐就被视为必不可少的伴奏。 当卢米埃尔 的电影在 1896 年 2 月美国首届影片公映展览上放映的时候，影片便用当时的流行曲临场钢 琴伴奏。 最初，这些音乐伴奏与电影没有什么特别的关系，用什么曲子伴奏都行。 但在很 短的时间内，为一部庄重的影片演奏快活的音乐所产生的不协调感变得显而易见，因此钢琴 家们开始注意将自己的作品与影片的情调结合起来。
随着影剧院在数量上与重要性上的不 断增长，在一些场合，除了钢琴师外，还要加上小提琴师，或许还有一位大提琴师。 较大的影剧院里还组成了小型的管弦乐队。 在很长的时间内，为各部影片选择配乐完全掌握在乐队指挥或队长手中，而通常把持这种职位的资格不是技巧或鉴赏品味，而是拥有一个大的 音乐作品的个人收藏。
因为直到电影上映的前一天晚上乐队指挥才能看到影片(如果这个指 挥真正有幸能够看到影片的话)，音乐安排通常是在非常匆忙的情况下临场进行的。为了解决以上的困难，电影发行公司开办了为音乐伴奏印制提示单的业务。 例如 1909 年爱迪生公司开始将一些诸如"喜悦的"、"悲伤的"、"活泼的"之类表明影片情调特征的提示与影片一起 发行。 这些提示逐渐变得更加具体，并且出现了包括影片情调说明、适用乐曲名称和乐曲 转换点等内容的配乐说明单。 某些影片拥有专门为其创作的音乐。 这些早期特创乐谱中最 著名的便是为 D. W. 格雷夫斯 1915 年上映的影片《一个国家的诞生》所创作的音乐。
>26 International Business and Cross-cultural Communication
The increase in international business and in foreign investment has created a need for executives with knowledge of foreign languages and skills in cross-cultural communication. Americans, however, have not been well trained in either area and, consequently, have not enjoyed the same level of success in negotiation in an international arena as have their foreign counterparts.
Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching an agreement. It involves persuasion and compromise, but in order to participate in either one, the negotiators must understand the ways in which people are persuaded and how compromise is reached within the culture of the negotiation.In many international business
《写作160篇》全面涵盖当年可考话题，经典话题精心选材，
negotiations abroad, Americans are perceived as wealthy and impersonal. It often appears to the foreign negotiator that the American represents a large multi-million-dollar corporation that can afford to pay the price without bargaining further.
The American negotiator's role becomes that of an impersonal purveyor of information and cash.In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have been identified that may serve to confirm this stereotypical perception, while
undermining the negotiator's position. Two traits in particular that cause cross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part of the American negotiator. Furthermore, American negotiators often insist on realizing short-term goals. Foreign negotiators, on the other hand, may value the relationship established between negotiators and may be willing to invest time in it for long-term benefits. In order to solidify the relationship, they may opt for indirect interactions without regard for the time involved in getting to know the other negotiator. Clearly, perceptions and differences in values affect the outcomes of negotiations and the success of negotiators. For Americans to play a more effective role in international business negotiations, they must put forth more effort to improve cross-cultural understanding.
国际商业和跨文化交流 国际贸易和海外投资的增加产生了对具有外语知识和跨文化交 流技巧的经理的需求。 然而，美国人在这两方面未得到良好的训练，因此没有在国际谈判 中象他们的外国对手一样成功。 谈判是为了达成协议而反复交流的过程。 它包括说服和妥 协。但是为了去进行说服和妥协，谈判者必须懂得在谈判的文化中怎样说服人和怎样达成 妥协。 在国外的国际商务谈判中，美国人被视为富有和不带个人情感。
在外国谈判者看来， 似乎美国人代表着一个庞大的拥有数百万资财的大企业，不用进一步地讨价还价就能出得起 价钱。
美国谈判者的角色变成了一个没有个人感情的信息及现金的供应者。 对在国外的美国谈判者的研究中，我们找出了损害谈判者能力的几个特点，或许证实这个已成定式的看法。 尤其引起跨文化误解的两个特点是美国谈判者的直截了当和缺乏耐心。
此外，美国谈判者经常坚持实现短期目标，而外国的谈判者会珍视建立谈判者之间的联系并愿意为长期利益投 入时间。 为了巩固这种联系，他们会选择非直接的交流而不计较投入用于了解对方的时间。 明显地，价值观的不同和理解上的差异影响了谈判的结果和谈判者的成功与否。美国人要 在国际商务谈判中扮演更为有效的角色，他们就必须投入更多的努力提高跨文化的理解力。
>27 Scientific Theories
In science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that are related. A theory often involves an imaginary model that helps scientists picture the way an observed event could be produced. A good example of this is found in the kinetic molecular theory, in which gases are pictured as being made up of many small particles that are in constant motion.
A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observations, helps to predict events that have not as yet been observed. After a theory has been publicized, scientists design experiments to test the theory. If observations confirm the scientists' predictions, the theory is supported. If observations do not confirm the predictions, the scientists must search further. There may be a fault in the experiment, or the theory may have to be revised or rejected.
Science involves imagination and creative thinking as well as collecting information and performing experiments. Facts by themselves are not science. As the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said,"Science is built with facts just as a house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts cannot be called science any more than a pile of bricks can be called a house." Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists have learned about a particular problem. After known facts have been gathered, the scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requires considerable imagination. Possible solutions to the problem are formulated. These possible solutions are called hypotheses.
In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown. It extends the scientist's thinking beyond the known facts. The
scientist plans experiments, performs calculations, and makes observations to test hypotheses. Without hypothesis, further
完整20篇初中英语小短文带翻译
1 Dogs People often say that a dog is man's best friend. Over thousands of years, man has taught his dogs to do many kinds of work besides guarding the home. For example, sheepdogs are famous for their ability to control a flock of hundreds of sheep. Dogs have been used to aid disabled people for centuries. A guide dog can lead its blind owner. Nowadays, dogs can be taught to turn on light switches, open refrigerator doors and dial the telephone for their disabled owners. For the majority of people, however, dogs are simply pets and friends for both young and old members of the family. guard 看守,看护sheepdog 牧羊犬flock 群aid 帮助 disabled 残疾人century 世纪guide dog 导盲犬dial 拨majority 大多数 狗 人们总是说狗是人类最好的朋友.几千年来,除了看家外,人类还教会了狗去做许多其他的事,例如,牧羊犬就因其可以控制数百只羊的羊群而出名. 狗用来帮助残疾人已有好几个世纪了.导盲犬可以为盲主人引路.现在,人们还教狗为残疾主人打 开电灯、开冰箱和拨电话.然而,对于大多数人来说,狗只是家里老人和孩子们的宠物和朋友. 2 Detective Work A bank robber stole a lot of money. He was caught and sent to prison, but the money was never found. When he came out of prison, they watched him to see what he would do. Here is the detective, reporting to the inspector. Yes, sir, I found Johnny . I followed him all around the town, but frankly, I couldn't make anything out of what he bought. Here's the list. shirt , heavy crowbar, box of chocolates , shovel, heavy hammer, bunch of flowers .The inspector said, Good. That helps me a lot. Do you remember how we watched him helping his neighbor, old Mrs. Judson to cover her backyard with cement? detective 侦探的侦探robber 强盗,盗贼prison 监狱 inspector 检察官frankly 坦白地,真诚地crowbar 铁撬,撬棒 shovel 铲,铁铲hammer 铁锤,锤子backyard 后院cement 水泥 侦探工作 一个盗贼从银行偷了很多钱.他被抓住送到监狱,但是钱没找到. 我发现了,先生,是的“侦探正向检察官报告：,这不.看他会做什么,他被监视,当他从监狱出来时．强尼?阿米塔基,我跟着他转遍了全镇,但坦白说,我不能从他买的东西中推断出什么.这里是清单.”衬衫、大铁撬、一盒巧克力铁铲、大铁锤、一束花. 检察官说：“好,这对我很有帮助.你还记得我们看到他是怎么帮他的邻居,贾德森老太太用水泥铺院子的吗?” 3 What is Time? （Nursery Rhyme） Time is grain for peasants. Time is wealth for workers.
英语励志短文及翻译
英语励志短文及翻译 梦想是一个可以离我们很近，又很远的东西。下面是我为大家搜集整理出来的有关于英语励志短文及翻译，希望可以帮助到大家！ Today is an excellent day for small improvements. Whatever is working for you, find a way to improve it just a little. There’s no need to make a huge change, just a small one, something you can do right now. If you called just one additional customer each day, over the course of the next month you would talk to about 20 new people. If you learned just one more new word each day, in the next year you would increase your vocabulary by more than 300 words. Small improvements can add up over time into big accomplishments. Look around you. Consider the work you do each day. Think about how you could do it just a little bit better. In a marathon race, each step the winner takes is just a little bit longer and a little bit faster than each stride taken by the 100th place finisher. Yet over the course of the race, that small difference adds up in a big way. Do just a little bit more today, and tomorrow too, and each day after that. Anyone can make just a small improvement, and that can make a big, big difference. 翻译：再多一点点
适合高中生背诵的经典英语短文
The Force of Habits Habits, whether good or bad, are gradually formed. The more we do a thing, the more we tend to like doing it; and if we do not continue to do it, we feel uncomfortable. This is called the force of habits, and the force of habits should be fought against. This applies even to such good things as work or rest. Some people form a bad habit of working too much, and others of idling too much. Bad habits, once formed, are difficult to get rid of. The wise man always remembers to check any bad habit. He warns himself “I am now becoming idle” or “I like too many sweets” or “I smoke too much”. And then adds, “I will get myself out of this bad habit at once.” The Way to Achieve Success Many people say that they owe much of it to the cultivation of certain good habits in early life. In forming good habits, I think we should pay attention to four things, that is honesty, industry, enthusiasm and thrift. “Honesty is the best policy.” This is a proverb to which we must pay attention. There are so many temptations in society that through a little carelessness we may go astray. But when we are honest, people will not be dishonest to us. Industry gives every man and woman, every boy and girl, proper work to do. To do nothing is going to ruin oneself. Enth usiasm is a great force. One’s soul will expand if one devotes oneself to a noble cause. The difficulties in our way are tremendous, but what can we not accomplish, if with enthusiasm }
小学英语阅读短文【小学英语阅读小短文带翻译】
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