英语新概念四优秀文章

来源:百度文库 编辑:神马文学网 时间:2024/04/28 20:28:37

Lesson 1  Finding fossil man 发现化石人
We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write.But there are some parts of the world where even now people cannot write. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas----legends handed down from one generation of story-tellers to another. These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.
But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first
‘modern men’ came from.
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away. Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.
我们从书籍中可以读到5,000年前近东发生的事情,那里的人最早学会了写字。但直到现在,世界上仍然有些地方;人们还不会书写。他们保存历史的唯一办法是将历史当作传说讲述,由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来。这些传说是很有用的,因为它们能告诉我们以往人们迁居的情况。但是;没有人能把他们当时做的事情记载下来。人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西亚人的祖先来自何方,当地人的传说却告诉了人们:其中有一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚迁来的。

但是,和我们相似的原始人生活的年代太久远了;因此,有关他们的传说即使有如今也失传了。于是,考古学家们既缺乏历史记载,又无口头传说来帮助他们弄清最早的“现代人”是从哪里来的。
然而,幸运的是,远古人用石头制作了工具,特别是用燧石,因力燧石较之其他石头更易成形。他们也可能用过木头和兽皮,但这类东西早已腐烂殆尽。石头是不会腐烂的。因此,尽管制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存;但远古时代的石头工具却保存了下来。

Lesson 48   Planning a share portfolio
            规划股份投资

First listen and then answer the following question.
听录音,然后回答以下问题。

How does the older investor differ in his approach to investment from the younger investor?

    There is no shortage of tipsters around offering 'get-rich-quick' opportunities. But if you are a serious private investor, leave the Las Vegas mentality to those with money to fritter. The serious investor needs a proper 'portfolio' -- a well-planned selection of investments, with a definite structure and a clear aim. But exactly how does a newcomer to the stock market go about achieving that?
    Well, if you go to five reputable stock brokers and ask them what you should do with your money, you're likely to get five different answers, -- even if you give all the relevant information about your age age, family, finances and what you want from your investments. Moral? There is no one 'right' way to structure a portfolio. However, there are undoubtedly some wrong ways, and you can be sure that none of our five advisers would have suggested sinking all (or perhaps any) of your money into Periwigs*.
    So what should you do? We'll assume that you have sorted out the basics -- like mortgages, pensions, insurance and access to sufficient cash reserves. You should then establish your own individual aims. These are partly a matter of personal circumstances, partly a matter of psychology.
    For instance, if you are older you have less time to recover from any major losses, and you may well wish to boost your pension income. So preserving your capital and generating extra income are your main priorities. In this case, you'd probably construct a portfolio with some shares (but not high risk ones), along with gilts, cash deposits, and perhaps convertibles or the income shares of split capital investment trusts.
    If you are younger, and in  a solid financial position, you may decide to take an aggressive approach -- but only if you're blessed with a sanguine disposition and won't suffer sleepless nights over share prices. If portfolio, alongside your more pedestrian in vestments. Once you have decided on your investment aims, you can then decide where to put your money. The golden rule here is spread your risk -- if you put all of your money into Periwigs International, you're setting yourself up as a hostage to fortune.
*'Periwigs' is the name of a fictitious company.
                          INVESTOR'S CHRONICLE, March 23 1990

New words and expressions 生词和短语
    portfolio
n. 
投资组合
    tipster
n. 
(以提供证券投机等内部消息为主的)情报贩子
    Las Vegas
n. 
拉斯韦加斯
    fritter
v. 
挥霍,浪费
    reputable
n. 
享有声望的
    broker
n. 
经纪人
    finance
n. 
资金,财源
    mortgage
n. 
抵押贷款
    pension
n. 
养老金
    priority
n. 
优先权
    gilt
n. 
金边证券(高度可靠的证券)
    convertible
n. 
可换证券
    sanguine
adj.
乐观的
    heady
adj.
令人陶醉的
    alongside
prep.
在……旁边,和……一起
    pedestrian
adj.
平淡无奇的,乏味的

 
参考译文
    我们周围不乏情报贩子,向人们提供迅速发财致富的机遇。但是,如果你是一个认真的私人投资者,就把拉斯韦加斯的心态留给那些有钱可供挥霍的人。认真的投资者需要一份正规的投资组合表 -- 一种计划很周密的投资选择,包括你的投资结构和明确的目标。但是, 一个股票市场的新手又如何能做到这一点呢?
    如果你去向5位有威望的股票经纪人咨询,询问你应该如何使用你的资金,你可能得到5种不同的答复,即便你提供了有关于你的年龄、家庭、财源和你想从投资中获得好处的信息。这是个道德问题吗?没有一种完全“正确”的方法来排列这种投资组合,然而,却毫无疑问地有几种错误的方法。可以相信5位经纪人中不会有人建议你把全部(或一部份)资金投入佩里威格斯公司。
    那么你该怎么做呢?我们假定你已把基本情况弄清楚了,如抵押贷款、养老金、保险金和动用现金储备的机会。然后,你一定要建立起自己的目标。这里一方面是个所处的环境,另一方面是个心理学的问题。
    比如说,如果你年纪较大,你从重大投资损失中恢复过来的时间就较少,你就很希望能够提高你的养老金收入。因此,你的首要任务就是保护你的资金和引发额外的收入。在这种情况下,你大概想制定一份包括某些股份(但不是风险很大的股份)的投资组合,同时还有高度可靠的证券、现金储蓄,可能还有可换证券,或分割资本投资信托公司的所得股。
    如果你年轻一些,并且经济状况可靠,你可能会采取一种积极进取的方式 -- 你必须性格开朗,不会因股票价格的浮动而夜不能眠。如果你觉得你的情况是这样的话,你可在投资组合中包括几项有令人陶醉的增值前景的增长股,和其他比较平淡的投资项目放在一起。一旦你的投资组合中包括几项有令人陶醉的增值前景的增长股,和其他比较平淡的投资项目放在一起。一旦你的投资目标确立以后,你就可以决定你的钱投向何处。这里的指导原则是:分散你的投资风险。如果你把所有资金投入佩里威格斯国际公司,你就把自己当成了命运的人质。

Lesson 46   Hobbies
               
业余爱好
                
First listen and then answer the following question.
听录音,然后回答以下问题。

Who, according to the author, are 'Fortune's favoured children'?

    a gifted American psychologist has said, 'Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind catches hold of something and will not let it go.' It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition. The stronger the will, the more futile the task. One can only gently insinuate something else into its convulsive grasp. And if this something else is rightly chosen, if it really attended by the illumination of another field of interest, gradually, and often quite swiftly, the old undue grip relaxes and the process of recuperation and repair begins.
    The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of the first importance to a public man. But this is not a business that can be undertaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will. The growth of alternative mental interests is a long process. The seeds must by carefully chosen; they must fall on good ground; they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying fruits are to be at hand when needed.
    To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: 'I will take an interest in this or that.' Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet get hardly any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to hard week's sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball or Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has beer working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend.
    As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire -- for them a new pleasure, a new excitement if only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying to escape from avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path.
    It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human being are divided into two classes: first, one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune's of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and modest forms. But Fortune's favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays, when they come, are grudged as enforced as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes, the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those work is their pleasure are those who and most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.
             WINSTON CHURCHLL Painting as a Pastime

New words and expressions 生词和短语
    gifted
adj.
有天才的
    psychologist
n. 
心理学家
    spasm
n. 
一阵(感情)发作  
    futile
adj. 无用的

    insinuate
v. 
便潜入,暗示
    convulsive
adj.
起痉挛的
    illumination
n. 
启发,照明
    undue
adj.
不造当的
    grip
n. 
紧张
    recuperation
n. 
休息
    improvise
v.
临时作成
    sedulously
adv.
孜孜不倦地
    vivify
v. 
使生气勃勃
    aggravate
v. 
加剧
    trifling
adj.
微小的
    gratify
v. 
便满意
    caprice
n. 
任性
    satiation
n. 
满足
    frantically
adv.
狂乱地
    avenge
v. 
替…报复
    boredom
n. 
厌烦
    clatter
n. 
喧闹的谈话
    sustenance
n. 
生计
    appetite
n. 
欲望
    grudge
v. 
怨恨
    absorbing
adj.
引人入胜的
    banish
v. 
排除,放弃

参考译文
    一位天才的美国心理学家曾经说过:“烦恼是感情的发作,此时脑子纠缠住了某种东西又不肯松手。”在这种情况下,你又和头脑争吵让它松手是无济于事的。这种意志越是强烈,这种尝试越是徒劳。你只能缓和而巧纱地让另一种东西进入痉挛僵持的头脑中。如果选得合适,而且的确受到别的领域的情趣的启迪,那么渐渐地,往往也是很顺利地,原先不适当的紧张就会松弛下来,恢复和修整的过程就会开始。
    因此,对一个从事社会活动的人来说,培养一种业余爱好和各种新的兴趣是关等重要的作法。但这并非一日之功,也不是单凭一蹴而就的事。精神上多种情趣的培养是一个长期的过程。要想在需要的时候可随手摘取充满生机的果实,那就必然从选良种做起,然后将其植入肥沃的土地,还需要勤勉地护理。
    一个人要想真正感到幸福和平安,至少应有两三种爱好,而且都比较实际。到了晚年才开始说:“我会对这些人或那个人发生兴趣”,已没有用了。这种愿望只能加剧精神紧张。一个人可能会获得与其日常工作无关的某些课题的渊博知识,而没有从中得到什么实益或宽慰。干你所喜欢的事是没有用的,你喜欢你所干的事。泛泛地说,人可以分为3类:劳累至死的人、忧虑至死的人、无聊至死的人。对于流汗出力干了一周苦活的体力劳动者来说,让他们在星期六下午再踢足球或打垒球是不合适的;同样,对于为严肃的公务操劳或烦恼了6天的政界人士、专业人员、商人来说,在周未再让他们为琐事而动脑子和忧虑也是无益的。
    至于那些能任意支配一切的“可怜的人”,他们能够恣意妄为,能染指一切追求的目标。对这种人来说,多一种新的乐趣、多一种新的刺激只是增加一分厌腻而已。他们到处奔乱跑,企图以闲聊和乱窜来摆脱无聊对他们的报复,但这是徒劳的。对他们来说,用某种形式的纪律约束他们一下才能有希望使他们走上正道。
    也可以这样说,理智的,勤劳的、有用的人可以分为两类:第一类是他分清工作是工作,娱乐是娱乐的人;第二类人的工作和娱乐是一回事。这两类人当中,第一类人是大多数,他们能够得到补偿。在办公室或工厂里长时间工作给他们带来了酬劳,这不仅是谋生的手段,而且还带来了寻找乐趣的强烈欲望,那怕是最简单的、最低等的乐趣。但是,命运之神的宠儿是第二类人,他们的生活是一种自然的和谐,对他们来说,工作时间总不会太长,每天都是假日,而通常的假期来到,他们却惋惜这假期强制打断了他们埋头从事的工作。然而对这两种人来说,都需要换一换脑子,改变一下气氛,转移一下注意力,这是不可缺少的。说实在的,把工作当作享受的那些人最需要每隔一段时间把工作从头脑中撇开。

Lesson 43  Are there strangers in space?
         宇宙中有外星人吗?

First listen and then answer the following question.
听录音,然后回答以下问题。

What does the 'uniquely rational way' for us to communicate with other intelligent beings in space depend on?

    We must conclude from the work of those who have studied the origin of life, that given a planet only approximately like our own, life is almost certain to start. Of all the planets in our solar system, we ware now pretty certain the Earth is the only one on which life can survive. Mars is too dry and poor in oxygen, Venus far too hot, and so is Mercury, and the outer planets have temperatures near absolute zero and hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. But other suns, start as the astronomers call them, are bound to have planets like our own, and as is the number of stars in the universe is so vast, this possibility becomes virtual certainty. There are one hundred thousand million starts in our own Milky Way alone, and then there are exist is now estimated at about 300 million million.
    Although perhaps only 1 per cent of the life that has started somewhere will develop into highly complex and intelligent patterns, so vast is the number of planets, that intelligent life is bound to be a natural part of the universe.
    If then we are so certain that other intelligent life exists in the universe, why have we had no visitors from outer space yet? First of all, they may have come to this planet of ours thousands or millions of years ago, and found our then prevailing primitive state completely uninteresting to their own advanced knowledge. Professor Ronald Bracewell, a leading American radio astronomer, argued in Nature that such a superior civilization, on a visit to our own solar system, may have left an automatic messenger behind to await the possible awakening of an advanced civilization. Such a messenger, receiving our radio and television signals, might well re-transmit them back to its home-planet, although what impression any other civilization would thus get from us is best left unsaid.
    But here we come up against the most difficult of all obstacles to contact with people on other planets -- the astronomical distances which separate us. As a reasonable guess, they might, on an average, be 100 light years away. (A light year is the distance which light travels at 186,000 miles per second in one year, namely 6 million million miles.) Radio waves also travel at the speed of light, and assuming such an automatic messenger picked up our first broadcasts of the 1920's, the message to its home planet is barely halfway there. Similarly, our own present primitive chemical rockets, though good enough to orbit men, have no chance of transporting us to the nearest other star, four light years away, let alone distances of tens or hundreds of light years.
    Fortunately, there is a 'uniquely rational way' for us to communicate with other intelligent beings, as Walter Sullivan has put it in his excellent book, We Are not Alone. This depends on the precise radio frequency of the 21-cm wavelength, or 1420 megacycles per second. It is the natural frequency of emission of the hydrogen atoms in space and was discovered by us in 1951; it must be known to any kind of radio astronomer in the universe.
    Once the existence of this wave-length had been discovered, it was not long before its use as the uniquely recognizable broadcasting frequency for interstellar communication was suggested. Without something of this kind, searching for intelligences on other planets would be like trying to meet a friend in London without a pre-arranged rendezvous and absurdly wandering the streets in the hope of a chance encounter.
         ANTHONY MICHAELIS Are There Strangers in Space? from The Weekend Telegraph
 
New words and expressions
生词和短语
    Mercury
n. 
水星
    hydrogen
n. 
氢气
    prevailing
adj.
普遍的
    radio astronomer
   
射电天方学家
    uniquely
adv.
唯一地
    rational
adj.
合理的
    radio frequency
   
无线电频率   
    cm
n.  厘米

    megacycle
n.  兆周

    emission
n. 
散发
    intersteller
adj.
星际的
    rendezvous
n. 
约会地点


参考译文
    根据研究生命起源的人们所作的工作,我们必然会得出这样的结论:如果设想有一颗行星和我们地球的情况基本相似,那几乎肯定会产生生命。我们目前可以肯定的是,在我们太阳系的所有行星中,地球是生命能存在的唯一行星。火星太干燥又缺氧,金星太热,水星也一样。除此之外,太阳系的其他行星的温度都接近绝对零度,并围绕着以氢气为主的大气层。但是,其他的太阳,既天文学家所说的恒星,肯定会有像我们地球一样的行星。因为宇宙中恒星的数目极其庞大,所以存在着产生生命星球的这种可能性是肯定无疑的。仅我们的银河系就有1000亿颗星,况且在宇宙中还有30亿个天河,即银河系。因此,我们所知道的现有恒星数目估计约有30亿X1000亿颗。
    虽然在已经产生生命的某个地方,可能只有1%会发展成高度复杂有智力的生命形态,但是行星的数目是那么庞大,有智力的生命必然是宇宙的自然组成道听部分。
    既然我们如此坚信宇宙中存在着其他有智力的生命,那么我们为什么还未见到外层空间来访的客人呢?首先,他们可能在几千年前或几百年前已来过我们地球,并且发现我们地球汉时普遍存在着的原始状态同他们的先进的知识相比是索然无味的。美国一位重要的射电天文学家罗纳德.布雷斯韦尔教授在《自然》杂志上提出了这样的观点:假如有如此高级文明生命访问了我们的太阳系,很可能会在离开太阳系时留下自动化信号装置,等待先进文明的觉醒。这种自动化信息装置,在接收到我们的无线电和电视信号后,完全有可能把这些信号发回到原来的行星。至于其他文明行星对我们地球会有什么印象,还是不说为好。

    然而,在和外星人联系中我们遇到的最大困难是分隔我们的天文距离。据合理推算,外星人离我们平均距离也有100光年之远(1光年是光以每秒186,000英里的速度在一年内走的距离即6万亿英里)。无线电波也是以光速传播的。假定外星人的这种自动化信息装置接收了我们二十世纪二十年代的第一次广播信号,那么这个信号在发回到原来的行星途中刚刚走了一半路程。同样,我们目前使用的原始化学火箭,虽然把人送入轨道,但尚不能把我们送到离我们最近、相距4光年的其他星球上去,更不用说几十光年或几百光年远的地方了。
    幸运的是,有一种我们可以和其他智力生命通迅联系的“唯一合理的方法”,正如活尔特.沙利方在其杰作《我们并不孤独》中阐述的。这种通迅联系要靠21厘料波段,即每秒1420兆周的精确无线电频率。这个频率是空间氢原子释放的自然频率,是在1951年被人类发现的。这个频率是宇宙中任何射电天文学家都应该熟悉的。
    一旦这种波长的实际存在被发现,提出把它作为星际间唯一可辨认的广播频率就为期不远了。没有这手段,要想寻觅其他星球上的智力生命,就如同去伦敦见一位朋友,事先未约定地点,而荒唐地在街上游逛,以期待碰巧遇上一样。

Lesson 47  The great escape
              
大逃亡        
First listen and then answer the following quesion.
听录音,然后回答以下问题。

What is one of the features of modern camping where nationality is concerned?

Economy is one powerful motive for camping, since after the initial outlay upon equipment, or through hiring it, the total expense can be far less than the cost of hotels. But, contrary to a popular assumption, it is far from being the only one, or even the greatest. The man who manoeuvres carelessly into his twenty pounds' worth of space at one of Europe's myriad permanent sites may find himself bumping a Bentley. More likely, Ford Escort will be hub to hub with Renault or Mercedes, but rarely with bicycles made for two.
That the equipment of modern camping becomes yearly more sophisticated is an entertaining paradox for the cynic, a brighter promise for the hopeful traveler who has sworn to get away from it all. It also provides-and some student sociologist might care to base his thesis upon the phenomenon -- an escape of another kind. The modern traveller is often a man who dislikes the Splendide and the Bellavista, not because he cannot afford, or shuns their material comforts. but because he is afford of them. Affluent he may be, but he is by no means sure what to tip the doorman or the chambermaid. Master in his own house, he has little idea of when to say boo to a maitre d'hotel.
    From all such fears camping releases him. Granted, a snobbery of camping itself, based upon equipment and techniques, already exists; but it is of a kind that, if he meets it, he can readily understand and deal with. There is no superior 'they' in the shape of managements and hotel hierarchies to darken his holiday days.
    To such motives, yet another must be added. The contemporary phenomenon of car worship is to be explained not least by the sense of independence and freedom that ownership entails. To this pleasure camping gives an exquisite refinement.
    From one's own front door to home or foreign hills or sands and back again, everything is to hand. Not only are the means of arriving at the holiday paradise entirely within one's own command and keeping, but the means of escape from holiday hel (if the beach proves too crowded, the local weather too inclement) are there, outside -- or, as likely, part of -- the tent.
    Idealists have objected to the package tour, that the traveller abroad thereby denies himself the opportunity of getting to know the people of the country visited. Insularity and self-containment, it is argued, go hand in hand. The opinion does not survive experience of a popular Continental camping place. Holiday hotels tend to cater for one nationality of visitors especially, sometimes exclusively. Camping sites, by contrast, are highly cosmopolitan. Granted, a preponderance of Germans is a characteristic that seems common to most Mediterranean sites; but as yet there is no overwhelmingly specialized patronage. Notices forbidding the open-air drying of clothes, or the use of water points for car washing, or those inviting 'our camping friends' to a dance or a boat trip are printed not only in French or Italian or Spanish, but also in English, German and Dutch. At meal times the odour of sauerkraut vies with that of garlic. The Frenchman's breakfast coffee competes with the Englishman's bacon and eggs.
    Whether the remarkable growth of organized camping means the eventual death of the more independent kind is hard to say. Municipalities naturally want to secure the campers' site fees and other custom. Police are wary of itinerants who cannot be traced to a recognized camp boundary or to four walls. But most probably it will all depend upon campers themselves: how many heath fires they cause; how much litter they leave; in short, whether or not they wholly alienate landowners and those who live in the countryside. Only good scouting is likely to preserve the freedoms so dear to the heart of the eternal Boy Scout.
          NIGEL BUXTON The Great Escape from The Weekend Telegraph

New words and expressions 生词和短语
    assumption
n. 
假定
    manoeuvre
v.
(驱车)移动
    myriad
adj.
无数的
    paradox
n. 
自相矛盾的呈
    cynic
n. 
愤世嫉俗者
    sociologist
n. 
社会学家
    shun
v. 
避开
    affluent
adj.
富有的
    chambermaid
n. 
女招待员
    boo
b. 
呸的一声
    maitre d'hotel
n.  [
法语]总管
    snobbery
n. 
势利
    hierarchy
n. 
等级制度
    entail
v. 
便成为必要
    inclement
adj.
险恶的
    package tour
   
由旅行社安排一切的一揽子诱游
    insularity
n. 
偏狭
    cater
v. 
迎合
    exclusively
adv.
排他地
    cosmopolitan
adj.
世界的
    preponderance
n. 
优势
    overwhelmingly
adv.
以压倒优势地,清一色地
    patronage
n. 
恩惠,惠顾
    sauerkraut
n. 
泡菜
    vie
v. 
竞争
    municipality
n. 
市政当局
    itinerant
n. 
巡回者
    heath
v. 
荒地
    alienate
v. 
便疏远
    eternal
adj.
永久的


参考译文
    图省钱是露营的一个主要动机,因为除了开始时购置或是租借一套露营装备外,总费用算起来要比住旅馆开支少得多。但是,和一般的看法相反,这决非是仅有的,甚至不是最主要的动机。如果一位游客漫不经心地驾车驶入欧洲无数常年营地之一,花20镑租用一个空位,那么他可能会碰见一辆本特利汽车,更可能会望见一辆福特.康索尔或一辆雷诺或一辆梅塞迪斯并排停放着,不过双人自行车则不容易看到。
    现代露营装备一年比一年讲究,这对那些厌世嫉俗者来说是一件有趣的自相矛盾的事情。而对于发誓用露营来摆脱烦恼的人来说,却带来了更光明的前景。学社会学的大学生来露营是另一种形式的摆脱现实,他们的目的很可能是根据观察到的露营现象去写论文。现代露营旅游的人往往讨厌在“斯普兰迪德”和“贝拉维斯塔”这样的大酒店,这并不是因为他们付不起钱,也不是为了躲避物质享受,而是因为他们害怕酒店。他们可能很富有,但给看门人和房间女服务叫多少小费,心中却根本没有数;他们在家可能是主人,但不知道什么时候才能对酒店的经理表示不满。
    露营便人们免除了这些忧虑。诚然,露营地本身也存在以露营装备和方式取人的势利现象,但如果有这种情况,露营者也容易理解,知道如何对付,但在露营地里根本不会有管人的“人上人”和酒店里的等级制度来种露营者的假日过得阴郁低沉。
    除上以动机外,还应加上一个。当前崇拜汽车现象可以用与所有权相伴的独立和自由意识来解释。因此开车去露营会给这种快乐意识增加一种优雅意境。
    从自己的家门出发到国内国外的山区或沙滩上露营然后返回,一切都很便利。完全在自己掌握之中的私人汽车不仅是到达假日天堂的工具,而且也是逃离假日地狱(如海滩太挤,当地天气恶劣)方便工具,因为汽车就停在帐篷外面,或者汽车本身可能就是露营帐篷的一个组成部分。
    理想主义者像反对旅行社安排一切的一揽子旅游一样反对露营的作法,说这种封闭的作法使到国外旅游者失去了了解所去国家人民的机会。他们争论说,心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。但这种说法在受人欢迎的欧洲露营地是站不住脚的。假日旅馆有只接待来自一个国家的旅游者的倾向,有时会达到排他的程度。而露营驻地则相反,是高度世界性的。在大多数地中海露营地里,德国人占优势似乎是个普遍现象,确实如此,但并没有特别的优待。禁止露天晒衣服、禁止用水龙头冲洗汽车的布告和邀请露营朋友参加舞会、乘船观光的招贴不仅印志法语、意大利语、西班牙语,而且也印成英语、德语、荷兰语。用饭的时候,德国泡菜味和大蒜味争相散发,法国人的早点咖啡和英国人的咸肉煎蛋竞相比美。

    有组织的露营活动的明显发展是否意味着较独立的自我封闭式露营的最终消失,还很难说。市政当局当然希望获得露营者的场地费和其他光临的好处,警察则对那些查不出有固定营地或住处的游荡者保持警惕。但最重要的或许是露营者自己,即他们引起了多少场野火,留下了多少垃圾。总之,他们是否弄得土地的主人和乡间的居民同他们反目。只有优良的童子军活动才能保持不朽的童子军所衷心热爱的各项自由。

Lesson 39   Waves
               海浪

First listen and then answer the following question.
听录音,然后回答以下问题。

What false impression does an ocean were convey to the observer?

    Waves are the children of the struggle between ocean and atmosphere, the ongoing signatures of infinity. Rays from the sun excite and energize the atmosphere of the earth, awakening it to flow, to movement, to rhythm, to life. The wind then speaks the message of the sun to the sea and the sea transmits it on through waves -- an ancient, exquisite, powerful message.
    These ocean waves are among the earth's most complicated natural phenomena. The basic features include a crest (the highest point of the wave), a trough (the lowest point), a height (the vertical distance from the trough to the crest), a wave length (the horizontal distance between two wave crests), and a period (which is the time it takes a wave crest to travel one wave length).
    Although an ocean wave gives the impression of a wall of water moving in your direction, in actuality waves move through the water leaving the water about where it was. If the water was moving with the wave, the ocean and everything on it would be racing in to the shore with obviously catastrophic results.
    An ocean wave passing through deep water causes a particle on the surface to move in a roughly circular orbit, drawing the particle first towards the advancing wave, then up into the wave, then forward with it and then -- as the wave leaves the particles behind -- back to its starting point again.
    From both maturity to death, a wave is subject to the same laws as any other 'living' thing. For a time it assumes a miraculous individuality that, in the end, is reabsorbed into the great ocean of life.
    The undulating waves of the open sea are generated by three natural causes: wind, earth movements or tremors, and the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. Once waves have been generated, gravity is the force that drives them in a continual attempt to restore the ocean surface to a flat plain.
           from World Magazine (BBC Enterprises)
 
New words and expressions
生词和短语
    signature
n. 
签名,标记
    infinity
n. 
无穷
    ray
n. 
光线
    energize
v. 
给与...能量
    rhythm
n. 
节奏
    transmit
v. 
传送
    exquisite
adj.
高雅的
    phenomena
n. 
现象
    crest
n. 
浪峰
    trough
n. 
波谷
    vertical
adj.
垂直的
    horizontal
adj.
水平的
    actuality
n. 
现实
    catastrophic
adj.
大灾难的
    particle
n. 
微粒
    maturity
n. 
成熟
    undulate
v. 
波动,形成波浪
    tremor
n. 
震颤
    gravitational
adj.
地心吸力的  

参考译文
    海浪是大海和空气相斗的产物,无限的一种不间断的标志。太阳光刺激了地球的大气层,并给予它能量;阳光使空气开始流动,产生节奏,获得生命。然后,风把太阳的住处带给了大海,海洋用波浪的形式传递这个信息 -- 一个源过流长、高雅而有力的信息。
    这些海浪属于地球上最复杂的自然现象。它们的基本特征包括浪峰(波浪的最高点)、波谷(最低点)、浪高(从波谷到浪峰的垂直距离)、波长(两个浪峰间的水平距离)和周期(海峰走过一个波长所需的时间)。虽然,海浪给人的印象是一堵由水组成的墙向你压过来,而实际上,浪从水中移过,而水则留在原处。如果水和浪一起移动的话,那么大海和海里所有的东西就会向岸边疾涌过来,带来明显的灾难性后果。
    穿过深水的海浪使水面上的一个微粒按照一种近乎圆形的轨道移动,先把微粒拉向前移动的海浪,然后推上波浪,随着波浪移动,然后 -- 当波浪把微粒留在身后时 -- 又回到出发点。
    从成熟到消亡,波浪和其他任何“活动中”的东西一样,都受制于共同的法则。一度它获得非凡的个性,但最终又被重新融进生命的大洋。
    公海上起伏的波浪是由3个自然因素构成的:风、地球的运动或震颤和月亮、太阳的引力。一旦波浪形成,地球引力是持续不断企图使海面复原为平面的力量。

Lesson 6   The sporting spirit
            体育的精神

First listen and then answer the following question.
听录音,然后回答以下问题.

How does the writer describe sport at the international level?

    I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the would could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the hattlefield. Even if one didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce if from general principles.
    Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win. On the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: but as soon as a the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused. Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this. At the international level, sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe -- at any rate for short periods -- that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.
                    GEORGE ORWELL The sporting spirit

New words and expression
    goodwill
n. 
友好
    cricket
n. 
板球
    inclination
n. 
意愿
    contest
n. 
比赛
    orgy
n. 
无节制的,放荡
    deduce
v. 
推断
    competitive
adj.
竞争性的
    patriotism
n. 
地方观念,爱国主义
    disgrace
v. 
使丢脸
    savage
adj.
野性的
    combative
adj.
好斗的
    mimic warfare
   
模拟战争
    behaviour
n. 
行动,举止
    absurd
adj.
荒唐的

参考译文
    当我听人们说体育运动可创造国家之间的友谊,还说各国民众若在足球场或板球场上交锋,就不愿在战场上残杀的时候,我总是惊愕不已。一个人即使不能从具体的事例(例如1936年的奥林匹克运动会)了解到国际运动比赛会导致疯狂的仇恨,也可以从常理中推断出结论。
    现在开展的体育运动几乎都是竞争性的。参加比赛就是为了取胜。如果不拚命去赢,比赛就没有什么意义了。 在乡间的草坪上,当你随意组成两个队,并且不涉及任何地方情绪时,那才可能是单纯的为了娱乐和锻炼而进行比赛。可是一量涉及到荣誉问题,一旦你想到你和某一团体会因为你输而丢脸时,那么最野蛮的争斗天性便会激发起来。即使是仅仅参加过学校足球赛的人也有种体会。在国际比赛中,体育简直是一场模拟战争。但是,要紧的还不是运动员的行为,而是观众的态度,以及观众身后各个国家的态度。面对着这些荒唐的比赛,参赛的各个国家会如痴如狂,甚至煞有介事地相信 -- 至少在短期内如此 -- 跑跑、跳跳、踢踢球是对一个民族品德素质的检验。