大学英语精读第二册Reading Aloud and Memorizing答案

The American does not join in the argument but watches the other guests. As he looks, he sees a strange expression come over the face of the hostess. She is s taring straight ahead, her muscles contracting slightly. She motions to the nat ive boy standing behind her chair and whispers something to him. The boy's eyes widen: he quickly leaves the room.

Of the guests, none except the American notices this or sees the boy place a bo wl of milk on the veranda just outside the open doors.

The American comes to with a start. In India, milk in a bowl means only one thi ng -- bait for a snake. He realizes there must be a cobra in the room.

Unit2

Jefferson's courage and idealism were based on knowledge. He probably knew more than any other man of his age. He was an expert in agriculture, archeology, an d medicine. He practiced crop rotation and soil conservation a century before t hese became standard practice, and he invented a plow superior to any other in existence. He influenced architecture throughout America, and he was constantly producing devices for making the tasks of ordinary life easier to perform.

Of all Jefferson's many talents, one is central. He was above all a good and ti reless writer. His complete works, now being published for the first time, will fill more than fifty volumes. His talent as an author was soon discovered, and when the time came to write the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia in 1776, the task of writing it was his. Millions have thrilled to his words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…"

Unit3

While I was waiting to enter university, I saw advertised in a local newspaper a teaching post at a school in a suburb of London about ten miles from where I lived. Being very short money and wanting to do something useful, I applied, fe aring as I did so, that without a degree and with no experience in teaching my chances of getting the job were slim.

However, three days later a letter arrived, asking me to go to Croydon for an i nterview. It proved an awkward journey: a train to Croydon station; a ten-minut e bus ride and then a walk of at least a quarter to feel nervous.

Unit 4

As a boy and then as an adult,I never lost my wonder at the personality that was Einstein .He was the only person i knew who had come to terms with himself and the world around him .He knew what he wanted and he wanted only this :to understand within his limits as a human being the nature of the universe and the logic and simplicity in its functioning .He knew there were answers beyond his intellectual reach .but this did not frustrate him .He was content to go as far as he could.

The sea level is rising very slowly from year to year. In all likelihood, it will continue to rise and do so at a greater rate in the course of the next hundred years. Where there are low-lying coastal areas (where a large fraction of the world’s population lives) the water will advance steadily, forcing people to retreat inland.

Eventually the sea will reach two hundred feet above its present level, and will be splashing against the windows along the twentieth floors of Manhattan’s skyscrapers. Florida will disappear beneath the waves, as will much of the British Isles, the crowded Nile valley, and the low-lying areas of China, India, and Russia.

Not only will many cities be drowned, but much of the most productive farming areas of the world will be lost. As the food supply drops, starvation will be widespread and the structure of society may collapse under the pressure

Unit 6

Now, in the last month of my residency, sleeping was no longer a problem. There were still situations in which I couldn't be certain my decision had been the ri ght one, but I had learned to accept this as a constant problem for a surgeon, o ne that could never be completely resolved - and I could live with it. So, once I had made a considered decision, I no longer dwelt on it. Reviewing it wasn't g oing to help and I knew that with my knowledge and experience, any decision I'd made was bound to be a sound one. It was a nice feeling.

Unit 7

And she didn’t just talk .She has been a driving force in the community organization BUILD(Baltimore United in Leadership Development).Together they drove drug dealers off a vacant lot and built a playground .They established an extended-day program at school to keep kids off the streets .They prompted the city and local churches to step up efforts to redevelop abandoned houses.

Not long ago , Armstead ran into one of the men who used to hang out on her steps .”Hey,Mom!” he exploded ,giving her a hug .He got a job ,he told her ,adding ,”I want to thank you for all your fussin’.”

Armstead is modest about the impact she’s had .She says simply,”It makes me feel good to know my message got through to at least one young man. ”

Unit 8

School children used to know the story of how Abraham Lincoln walked five miles to return a penny he’d overcharged a customer .It’s the kind of story we think of as myth .But in the case of Lincoln ,the story is true ... Unlike the story of George Washington and the cherry tree .Washington’s first biographer invented the tale of little George saying to his father ,”I cannot tell a lie .I did it with my ax.” What is important in both stories ,however ,is that honesty was seen as an important part of the American character.

Unit 9

Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence te st. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an a cademician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron. And I'd be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verba l talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I w ould do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute. Its worth is determined by the society I live in. Its numerical evaluation is determined by a small su bsection of that society which has managed to foist itself on the rest of us as an arbiter of such matters.

Unit 10

Praise is like sunlight to the human spirit; we cannot flower and grow without it. And yet, while most of us are only too ready to apply to others the cold wind of criticism, we are so mehow reluctant to give our fellows the warm sunshine of praise.

Why - when one word can bring such pleasure? A friend of mine who travels widely always trie s to learn a little of the language of any place she visits. She's not much of a linguist, b ut she does know how to say one word - "beautiful" - in several languages. She can use it to a mother holding her baby, or to lonely salesman fishing out pictures of his family. The ab ility has earned her friends all over the world.