泛读2 Unit1 课外阅读材料
Unit One
1. Alone in the Arctic Cold
(Reading Time: 5 1/2 minutes)
Day had broken exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the slope, where a dim and little-traveled trail led eastward through the pine forest. The slope was steep, and he paused for breath at the top. There was no sun nor hint of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet there seemed to be a mist over the face of things, that made the day dark. This fact did not worry the man. He was used to the lack of sun.
The man looked back along the way he had come. The Yukon River lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow. It was unbroken white, save for a dark hairline that was the trail that led south five hundred miles to the Chilcoot Pass.
But all this—the mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all—made no impression on the man. He was a newcomer in the land and this was his first winter. The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to think about man's weakness in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold. Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bit of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of thick, warm clothing. Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head.
As he turned to go on, he spat speculatively. There was a sharp, explosive crackle that startled him. He spat again. And again, in the air, before it could fall to the snow, the spittle crackled. He knew that at fifty below spittle crackled on the snow, but this spittle had crackled in the air. Undoubtedly it was colder than fifty below—how much colder he did not know. But the temperature did not matter. He was bound for the old mine on the left fork of Henderson Creek where the boys were already. They had come over the hill from the Indian Creek country, while he had come the roundabout way to take a look at the possibilities of getting out logs in the spring from the islands in the Yukon. He would be in to camp by six o'clock; a bit after dark, it was true, but the boys would be there, a fire would be going, and a hot supper would be ready.
He plunged in among the big pine trees. The trail was faint. He was glad he was without a sled, traveling light. In fact, he carried nothing but the lunch wrapped in the handkerchief. He was surprised, however, at the cold. It certainly was cold, he concluded, as he rubbed his numb nose and cheekbones with his gloved hand. Comprehension Exercise
A.Select the most appropriate answer for each of the following questions.
1.When the story began, _______.
A)it was early in the morning when a new day had just started
B)it was approaching noon but the sun was not shinning
C)it was turning dark and gray as night would soon fall
D)the sun was covered by a layer of mist in the sky
2.The Yukon trail _______.
A)was entirely covered by snow and ice
B)was a narrow path alongside the Yukon River
C)was 500 miles away in the south
D)was a path leading to the Chilcoot Pass
3.We learn from the passage that the man in the story _______
A)reacted to everything in a matter-of-fact way
B)liked to think about the meaning of life
C)was troubled with the strangeness and weirdness of the place
D)could not cope with the extreme cold since it was his first winter in the area
4.The man was alone in this area because ______.
A)he took a roundabout route in order to have a better look at the place
B)the other numbers of his team wanted to reach their destination earlier
C)the others decided to take another route near Henderson Creek to explore an
old mine
D)he wanted to explore the area to see if logs be taken out in the spring
5.The man in the story _______.
A)believed he could travel much faster without a sled
B)was lucky in not traveling on a sled for the trail was too narrow for a sled
C)had to travel by foot since the pine trees made traveling on a sled very difficult
D)took nothing with him except some food in order to travel light
B.Translate the underlined sentences into Chinese
2．Memories of Afghanistan
(Reading Time: 7 minutes)
Afghanistan—a country on the brink of a humanitarian disaster, a land filled with fleeing refugees, starving people, and turbaned terrorists in training camps. TV pictures tell the story of a country in ruin and poverty, a country brought almost to total destruction by twenty years of war and struggle. Yet once—though poor—this was a proud nation, and a beautiful country, and one that had survived many centuries of harsh history. Not too long ago, it was a country in peace, and one with a rich cultural heritage ...
Apart from the nations of Europe, there are few countries in the world that have never been under colonial rule—or at least never in recent times: Afghanistan was one of them. Many centuries ago, Genghis Khan's troops rode down from Mongolia, mercilessly killing the mountain tribesmen of Afghanistan who dared to resist the invader; but apart from this humiliating period in time, the Afghans—who are in fact a mixture of three separate ethnic groups—have held their heads high in the face of invasion.
The country that is now at the centre of the world's attention was once one of the world's proudest nations, and a nation that other countries invaded at their own risk. In the 19th century the armies of the British Empire knew that Afghanistan was not a country to interfere with.
A hundred and twenty years ago, in 1881, British soldiers were nonetheless stationed in the Afghan capital, Kabul. They were there for two reasons, firstly to help stop the Russians from invading the country, and secondly to ensure the existence of an independent buffer-state between the Russian Empire to the north, and the British Empire in India (modern Pakistan) to the south east.
Queen Victoria would have liked to add Afghanistan to her empire, but her soldiers never succeeded in this mission, though they tried, and failed. In 1879, the whole British Mission (embassy) in Kabul, including servants, was massacred by a group of rebel Afghan soldiers, furious because they had not been paid by their own king, Mohammed Yacoub. Yacoub was friendly to the British, so the British got the blame. The story of the Kabul Massacre was remembered for a long time by the British in India, and recorded by several Victorian writers and poets.
Other bloody events also marked the relationship between the British and the Afghans in the 19th century. In 1842, in the notorious battle of the Khyber Pass, a complete British army was massacred by Afghans as they returned from a short raid into the country. Just one man, a doctor, managed to survive the massacre, and make his way back to the safety of India, to tell the story of the terrible event.
Though the world has changed a lot since Victorian times, Afghanistan has changed little. In many ways, the Taliban have even moved the country back in time, to a dark age of ignorance, intolerance and repression; but even without the Taliban, Afghanistan would still, today, be one of the world's most undeveloped nations. Land-locked, aside from most modern routes of communication, and broken up by the mighty Hindu Kush mountains and by vast deserts, Afghanistan, like the "tribal
territory" of northwest Pakistan, has remained fiercely independent from outside interference, and strongly attached to its traditional ways.
For the last twenty-five years, the Afghan people have suffered from war and destruction: the overthrow of the monarchy, then the invasion by the Soviet Union in 1978, then the war against the Soviets, then the struggle for control of the country between the Taliban and the supporters of General Massoud, now the massive departure of a people on the verge of starvation, driven from their homes as much by fear of the Taliban as by the threat of military invasion.
Yet in spite of all this, despite the destruction of a large part of their country, the Afghan people remain kind and hospitable. Older Afghans remember back to a past, when they lived in peace and relative security; younger Afghans, who have never known an era of peace, look forward to the day when a new age of peace will come. Hopefully, that new dawn will not be too far away.
Comprehension Exercises
A. Decide whether the following statements are True or False.
______1. Afghanistan is one of the few countries outside of Europe that have never under colonial rule.
______2. In the entire history of Afghanistan, the only armies that ever conquered the Afghans were the Mongols.
______3. In 1888, British soldiers were stationed in Afghanistan in order to help the Afghans drive away the Russian invaders.
______4. The British had begun to show interest in Afghanistan as early as 1809.
______5. The entire British Mission in Kabul was killed by rebel Afghan soldiers because they hated their king and decided to kill his British allies.
B.Translate the underlined sentences into Chinese
3. The Conquest of Mt. Jolmo Lungma
(Reading Time: 5 1/2 minutes)
It was 11: 30 a.m. My first sensation was one of relief—relief that the long climb was over; that the summit had been reached before our oxygen supplies had dropped to a critical level; and the relief that in the end the mountain had been kind to us in having a pleasantly rounded cone for its summit instead of a fearsome and unapproachable steep cliff. But mixed with the relief was a vague sense of astonishment that I should have been the lucky one to attain the ambition of so many brave and determined climbers. It seemed difficult at first to grasp that we had got there. I was too tired and too conscious of the long way down to safety really to feel any great joy. But as the fact of our success thrust itself more clearly into my mind, I felt a quiet glow of satisfaction spread through my body—a satisfaction more powerful than I had ever felt on a mountain top before. I turned and looked at my guide, Tenzing. Even beneath his oxygen mask and the icicles hanging from his hair, I could see his infectious grin of sheer delight. But this was not enough for Tenzing, and impulsively he threw his arm around my shoulders and we thumped each other on the back in mutual congratulations.
But we had no time to waste. First I must take some photographs and we would hurry down. I turned off my oxygen and took the set off my back. I remembered all the warnings I had had of the possible fatal consequences of this, but for some reason felt quite confident that nothing serious would result. I took my camera out of the pocket of my windproof jacket and clumsily opened it with my thickly gloved hands. I clipped on the lens hood and ultra-violet filter and then shuffled down the ridge a little so that I could get the summit into my viewfinder. Tenzing had been waiting patiently, but now, at my request, he unfurled the flags wrapped around his ice-axe and standing on the summit held them above his head. Clad in all his bulky equipment and with the flags flapping furiously in the wind, he made a dramatic picture, and the thought drifted through my mind that this photograph should be a good one if it came out at all. I did not know, he had never taken a photograph before and the summit of Jolmo Lungma was hardly the place to show him now.
I climbed up to the top again and started taking a photographic record in every direction. The weather was still extraordinarily fine. From our viewpoint I could see all the northern slopes of the mountain and was immediately struck by the possibility of a feasible route to its summit. With a growing feeling of excitement, I took another photograph to study at leisure on returning to civilization. Almost under our feet, it seemed, was the famous North Col glacier, where so many epic deeds of courage and endurance were performed by the earlier British Expeditions. It was a sobering thought to remember how often these men had reached 9,000m without the benefits of our modern equipment and reasonably efficient oxygen sets. Inevitably my thoughts turned to Mallory and Irving, who had lost their lives on the mountain 30 years before.
Comprehension Exercises
Decide whether the following statements are True or False.
______1. Upon reaching the summit, the writer felt relieved that his oxygen supplies had not been used up.
______2. We know from the passage that the mountain top had the shape of a steep cliff.
______3. The writer felt immensely proud of having reached the summit —an ambition so many brave an determined climbers wanted to achieve.
______4. The writer was not overcome with joy upon reaching the top as he was still overwhelmed with disbelief and also a feeling of anxiety about the
dangerous decent down the mountain.
______5. The writer was a 33-year old mountaineer from New Zealand.
4. Buzz –bombs and Doodlebugs
(Reading Time: 6 1/2 minutes)
In 1944 I was a schoolboy of 15. I had not been in London during the Blitz of 1940-41, but I returned to the family home in South London in 1942 and went to school there. It has to be remembered that for nearly three years, from 1941 to 1944, there was almost no bombing at all. Then in February 1944 Germany launched what became known as the "little Blitz". This went on for a few days, but was on nothing like the scale of the bombing of 1940-41, still less the massive Anglo-American air raids then being directed at Germany.
In June 1944 the first flying bombs fell on London; they were usually called "buzz-bombs" or "doodlebugs". It was not clear what they were at first, as they were obviously not dropped from a plane. Then it was understood that they were in effect self-propelled pilotless aircraft, which when they reached their maximum range would crash with their explosive load. At first only one or two fell, but soon it became obvious that a regular bombardment was under way.
The most noticeable aspect of the doodlebugs was their sound, which was quite unlike any ordinary plane; it had a strange tearing and rasping sound, more like a motorcycle. It soon acquired a disquieting and disturbing quality, and prompted unbecoming reactions. If the motor cut out when the weapon was approaching, then it was likely to drop nearby and one tried to take shelter; if it continued its flight, one could feel relieved: someone else would be the victim. South London was on their regular flight path, and many of them fell nearby, causing damage and loss of life. Our house suffered broken glass and a ceiling down but no serious damage.
There was a particularly bad incident on 28th July 1944 when a flying bomb fell in the main shopping centre of Lewisham; it penetrated an air raid shelter, causing 51 deaths and many casualties. At about that time I was in a street about a quarter of a mile away, conscious of all the nearby disturbance; what I remember most clearly was seeing bloodstains on the pavement. Looking back, I am struck by the very matter-of-fact way in which at that age I responded to all this.
In August 1944 I went to stay with an uncle who lived in a village near Canterbury in Kent. This was out of the way of the flying bombs in one sense, as they were directed at London; but they often passed overhead as the village was situated in what was called Doodlebug Alley. Sometimes they would fall in the nearby fields, either because they had fallen short, or were shot down by fighters. The RAF brought the first jet fighters into operation to try to catch them as they were much faster than piston-engined fighters. They would fly alongside them and flip their wing to spill them harmlessly into the open fields below.
I remember sitting on the North Downs with my cousin and his girl-friend, and seeing a fighter chasing a doodlebug. It crashed somewhere in the distance, which was an exciting spectacle, either shot down or tipped off course by the pursuing plane. Some of them failed to explode and one was put on display at a store in Canterbury.
There is no doubt that these things did a great deal of damage in London within the space of a few weeks. The allied armies were advancing on the launching sites in Northern France and Belgium, and there was concern that they would not get there in time to prevent more damage and loss of life.
Soon, however, they were replaced by the far more frightening V2 weapons. These were rockets proper, much larger and more destructive which gave no notice at all of their arrival, and they continued to fall on London at intervals during the last winter of the war, 1944-45.
Comprehension Exercise
Select the most appropriate answer for each of the following questions.
1.We know from the passage that _______.
A)compared with Germany’s earlier bombings, the “little Blitz” was bombing on
a larger scale
B)Germany launched the most destructive bombing in February 1944
C)the British and Americans did not launch massive air raids on Germany
D)the author did not see much bombing in the first two years after he returned
home
2.What was most noticeable about the buzz-bombs?
A)They gave off a sharp rasping sound when they were about to fall.
B)They could deliver an explosive load over a very long range.
C)They could be controlled from a remote distance.
D)Once their tearing sound stopped, it meant they would drop soon.
3.When the main shopping center of Lewisham was bombed, _______.
A)the author was shocked to so many people killed
B)the author was surprised he could still remain calm in the face of such a
tragedy
C)the author saw from a nearby street the serious destruction that was caused
D)the author was struck by the bravery of the people who were wounded in the
bombing
4.What was Doodlebug Alley?
A)The villages over which the buzz-bombs flew on their way to their targets.
B)The flight path of the buzz-bombs directed at British cities.
C)The flight route of the buzz-bombs aimed at London.
D)The place in Germany where the buzz-bombs were produced.
5.During the last winter of the war, ______.
A)people were concerned that Allies were unable to think of a way to counter
Germany’s use of buzz-bombs
B)the Germans developed a more powerful and destructive weapon that caused
greater damage and loss of life
C)the V2 rockets did far more damage to London in a matter of few weeks than
the buzz-bombs did in the whole year
D)the V2 rockets were found to be more destructive because they were silent in
flight