全新版大学英语快速阅读1原文

全新版大学英语

快速阅读1

Unit 1

Johnny the Explorer

Johnny was three when he ran away from home for the first time. Somebody left the garden gate open. Johnny wandered out, crossed some fields, and two hours later, arrived in the next village. He was just able to give his name and address.

By the time he was seven, Johnny used to vanish from home two to three times a year. Sometimes he covered quite long distances on foot. On other occasions he got on a bus or even a train, and simply sat there until someone asked for his ticket. Generally the police brought him home. "Why do you do it?" they used to ask. "You aren't unhappy at home, are you? .... " "Of course not," Johnny replied. "Then why?" "I just like seeing places," Johnny told them.

Johnny continued to "see places" although everyone tried to stop him. His parents used to watch him closely, and so did his teachers; but

sooner or later Johnny managed to slip away. As he grew older, his favorite trick was to hide on a long distance truck. Sometimes he used to travel hundreds of miles before anyone discovered him.

It is hardly surprising that eventually Johnny managed to get on board a plane. He was twelve at the time. It was a cargo plane and, a few hours later, Johnny found himself in Cairo. How did he get on board? No one knows! According to Johnny himself, it was easy: he just went into the airport, walked along some corridors and got on board the nearest plane.

In spite of all this, Johnny did well at school. He enjoyed maths and languages and, perhaps not surprisingly, he was especially good at geography. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" his teachers asked him. Johnny did not take long to answer that question. "An explorer!" he answered. "But it's difficult to become an explorer in this modem age." they tried to tell him, "unless you go into space!" But it was no use: Johnny knew what he wanted!

Just before he left school, Johnny saw a notice in one of the daily papers. An expedition was about to go to Brazil to travel up the Amazon River. There were vacancies for three young people "willing to work hard and with a sense of adventure". Johnny applied, and, two months later, he was on his way to Brazil.

Growing Pains

I guess it was not Scottie 's day. We did not know if something had happened, or if Scottie was just feeling his age. After all, how grown up is a four-year-old supposed to act? But to really understand what happened, let us start at the beginning.

Mary and I had invited our nephew, Scottie, over for his usual Sunday supper. We always looked forward to having him because he was a neat little boy. On this particular evening, he arrived on time as usual. However, instead of hugs and kisses, Scottie just pushed past us and headed for the sofa. I had to take a second look to make sure this was the right little boy.

While we waited for the roast chicken—Scottie's favorite—to finish cooking, we sat on the sofa talking. Right in the middle of one of my sentences, Scottie said suddenly, "Hey, Uncle Arnold, I want to play my record." The conversation came to a halt. A minute later, the record player was on as loud as it could go with "Disco Duck". Scottie was dancing and singing in the middle of the room. Mary was talking to me, but I could not hear a thing she was saying. I was puzzled that I let the matter pass with only a slight comment.

Soon dinner was served. We sat down, lit the candles, and started to eat. Scottie usually would be the first to start eating, but tonight he

just sat there and stared at me. "Aren't you hungry?" I asked. "Yes," replied Scottie. "Then aren't you going to eat?" "No, I 'm not," he answered. "It's your favorite dinner," said my wife. "I don't want to eat," answered Scottie. Paying no attention to his strange behavior for the moment, I said, "Okay, if you don't want to eat, you don't have to eat. You may sit and keep us company until we finish our delicious meal." As we continued our dinner, Scottie 's face looked confused and uncertain.

After we finished dinner, we began clearing away the dishes, leaving Scottie to sit there with that look of disappointment on his little face. When I removed the dish containing the roast beef, it was more than he could bear. He stood up and threw his napkin across the table. Unfortunately, it hit one of the candles and caught fire. I do not know who cried out the loudest, myself or Scottie. We both stood there with a look of horror on our faces. I took the napkin and put it out. Scottie started crying. "I 'm sorry," he said. "I was just trying to be Dennis. My teacher read us the book about Dennis the Menace, and we thought all the things he did were so funny. But they are not funny when I do them. I don't want to be Dennis any more." We were glad that he was not Dennis any more, just our little Scottie.

Working while You Grow

Kitchen Manager—Joe

I had been working at a cafe called Pacific Desserts for two years. One day the kitchen manager left his job. I had worked there the longest. I was given the kitchen manager 's work, but not the title or the pay.

High school kids waited tables at night there. They often visited in the morning before the place was open. They came for free coffee. I had been making myself breakfast before the manager got there and I decided to expand. For the last three months of school, I made fried eggs and potato salad using the restaurant 's eggs, cheese, milk, vegetables, potatoes, and spices. We started a morning coffee club, and charged $ 1 per plate. Soon the high school students started to bring their friends. One of them even made a signboard in his carpentry class that read "Joe 's Underground Cafe". I usually made about $ 8 extra per day. This was the same as an increase in my pay. I was also spending an hour of the company 's time for my own profit.

Bicycle Messenger—Kenny

Being a bike messenger in Seattle is hard, but our job was easy. We had to work extremely hard, but at least we got paid by the hour.

The company always let us wear shorts, but we had to wear the company T-shirts. We cut off the sleeves to stay cool. Then, the company

wanted to give a better impression of itself because we delivered to big businesses. They made us wear long pants and shirts made of heavy material. This was crazy! Try riding your bicycle fast for ten miles up hills, really big hills, with heavy packages while you 're wearing long pants!

All of the messengers agreed we could not continue like that. We decided that we wouldn't wash our clothes at all. We wore the same clothes every day. You can imagine what it was like when we were in an elevator. Our clothes smelled terrible and our bodies also smelled bad. Within a month, the company received many complaints. They let us wear shorts again.

E.T.—A fairy Tale of the Space Age

For many children the search for extra-terrestrial life or life from other planets may seem to be already over. An extra-terrestrial has been with us for some time. Children ask for shirts that read "E.T.—I love you" and for E.T. toys under the Christmas tree. Steven Spielberg 's film, "E.T.—the Extra-terrestrial", has become one of the biggest film money-makers of all time; even ahead of "Star Wars".

What is it about this big-eyed creature from outer space that has made America 's children and many adults so excited? Psychologists say

that the film of E.T., like ancient fairy tales, contains powerful stories that help children through the difficult process of growing up. The message that fairy tales bring to the child is that a struggle against severe difficulties in life cannot be avoided, but that if one does not run away but meets unexpected and often unjust hardships, one masters all obstacles and at the end comes out victorious.

Today 's children, who often grow up alone in homes that are separated from other children, need fairy tales even more than children did at the time when those tales were first told. In E.T. they find a fairy tale with a special interest because it is set in the space age, which is closer to their situation than a story set in an old castle. E.T. may not be good-looking physically, but he is totally harmless, kind and charming. No child need fear an outer space filled with creatures like E.T.

The film has at least two heroes who children can understand and with whom they can share their feelings—E.T. himself and Elliott, the 10-year-old boy who finds, looks after and saves the friendly and likable creature after he is left behind by his spaceship. Both Elliott and E.T. have been left to look after themselves. Elliott feels alone because his parents have separated, but he finds a magical friend whom he can protect and who provides him with friendship. Children often have a strong need for imaginary playmates.

For all children, the film raises the question of the need to grow up and the desire to stay a child. Elliott decides not to go with E.T. aboard the spaceship, where he could continue living in an imaginary world. As one child said, "Elliott stayed on Earth because he has to grow up and you can't grow up on the faraway planet of Jupiter. You stay small and a kid like E.T."

The film offers many ideas from the traditional fairy tale: first, good children get the better of bad adults. Secondly, the hero is put in a difficult position in the early stages of the story but there is a happy ending when he is finally rescued. Thirdly, the film offers the idea of rebirth, which is found in many fairy tales. Finally, the story also reminds one of "The Three Feathers" by the well-known writers of fairy tales—the Grimm brothers. In this story, the youngest son wins his father 's kingdom by defeating his brothers with the help of an ugly old toad. Put to a final test, to bring back the most beautiful woman, he wins again by choosing the toad who turns into a beauty. Thus, it is love which turns even ugly things into something beautiful. It's easy to see how that is true of E.T.

Unit 2

Making Friends

Friends play an important part in our lives, and although we may take the fact of friendship for granted, we often don't clearly understand how we make friends. While we get on well with a number of people, we are usually friends with only a very few—for example; the average among students is about 6 per person.

Moreover, a great many relationships come under the general term "friendship". In all cases, two people like one another and enjoy being together, but beyond that, the degree of closeness between them and the reasons for their interest in each other vary greatly.

At the beginning, much depends on how people meet, and on good first impressions. As we get to know people, we consider things like age, race, looks, economic and social status, and intelligence. Although these factors are not of the greatest importance, it is more difficult to have a good relationship with people when there is a big difference in age and background.

We pay attention to actual behavior, facial expression, and the way a person speaks. Friends will stand closer together and will spend more time looking at each other than ordinary acquaintances. Smiles and soft voices also express friendliness, and it is because they may give the wrong

signals that shy people often have difficulty in making friends. A friendly look with the wrong facial expression can turn into an unfriendly stare, and nervousness may be wrongly understood as unfriendliness. People who do not look one in the eye are not trusted when, in fact, they simply do not have confidence.

Some relationships are a result of argument and discussion, but it is usual for close friends to have the same ideas and beliefs, the same opinions and interests—they often talk about "being on the same wavelength". The more closely involved people become, the more they depend on one another. People want to do friends favors and hate to let them down. Equally, friends have to learn to make allowances for each other, to put up with annoying habits, and to accept differences in opinion. Imagine going on a long trip with someone you occasionally meet for a drink!

In contrast with marriage, there are no friendship ceremonies to strengthen the relationship between two people. But the mutual support and understanding that results from shared experiences and emotions does seem to create a close and lasting relationship, which can overcome differences in background, and break down barriers of age, class or race.

Black and White

From the beginning, we knew we came from different worlds, yet it was surprising how much the same we were in many ways. When I first met Bud, I knew we were going to be friends, even though he was white and I was black. He was confident, forward, and very friendly. He would just walk up and start a conversation about anything. He really was very much like me. People said we both had the same kind of personality.

We first met at the All-City Chorus. I thought I could sing a little, but Bud could really have a good voice. I really believe he could have broken a glass singing one of his high notes—just as you see on the TV ads. We stood side by side in the chorus, and he always made me look good, even if I missed a note. After practice, the two of us would always go to McDonald 's for a hamburger and an ice-cream. We had a lot in common, but our stories were really about two different worlds.

Bud went to an all-white high school in a quiet, all-white neighborhood. There were very few big buildings or stores in his community. As a matter of fact, you would have to walk four or five blocks to get to the nearest shopping center. Bud always talked about how green and beautiful the neighborhood looked. He even lived close to a wide-open park where he first became interested in football. He started out as a fullback, and later became the best fullback on his high school football team. Bud 's

house was another point of interest. In his basement, he had a complete mini-gym. In his bedroom, he had a nice desk, complete with reference books and his own little TV on which he could play his video games.

My home and neighborhood were totally different. My family lived in a nice apartment in an all-black housing project. Our project housed many families, so we were used to living in small crowded quarters. Everyone in the project knew what everybody else was doing. It was like a city within a city. We never had to walk far to the nearest store. There were all kinds of stores nearby. For beauty, we had concrete buildings, basketball courts, and the rose garden in front of the project building. If I wanted to exercise, I would have to stay late at school. As captain of my high school football team, I really had to keep physically fit, and I never had the convenience of a mini-gym in my basement. My study was the kitchen table. After dinner, I would do my homework there and hope none of my five brothers and sisters would disturb me.

Comparing worlds was always interesting. We never were jealous or looked down on one another, either. We always accepted one another as equals. As a matter of fact, we both felt we had lost something because we lived in worlds set apart from others. Bud 's only contact with blacks his age was in the All-City Chorus. Because of this, he felt his life was sheltered and not as interesting as it would have been if he had grown up with people of different groups and races living together. I felt the same