《新概念英语第四册课.pdf》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《新概念英语第四册课.pdf（26页珍藏版）》请在taowenge.com淘文阁网|工程机械CAD图纸|机械工程制图|CAD装配图下载|SolidWorks_CaTia_CAD_UG_PROE_设计图分享下载上搜索。
1、Lesson 1 Finding fossil manWe can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East,where people first learned towrite.But there are some parts of the word where even now people cannot write.The only way that theycan preserve their history is to recount it as sagas legends handed down fr
2、om one generation of another.These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived longago,but none could write down what they did.Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors ofthe Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from.The s
3、agas of these people explainthat 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 firstmodern
4、 men came from.Fortunately,however,ancient men made tools of stone,especially flint,because this is easier toshape than other kinds.They may also have used wood and skins,but these have rotted away.Stone doesnot decay,and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made
5、 themhave disappeared without trace.Lesson 2 Spare that spiderWhy,you may wonder,should spiders be our friends?Because they destroy so many insects,andinsects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.Insects would make it impossible for usto live in the world;they would devour all our
6、crops and kill our flocks and herds,if it were not for theprotection we get from insect-eating animals.We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but allof them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders.Moreover,unlike some ofthe other insect eaters,spiders never
7、 do the harm to us or our belongings.Spiders are not insects,as many people think,nor even nearly related to them.One can tell thedifference almost at a glance,for a spider always has eight legs and insect never more than six.How many spiders are engaged in this work no our behalf?One authority on s
8、piders made a censusof the spiders in grass field in the south of England,and he estimated that there were more than2,250,000 in one acre;that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch.Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.It is impossible to
9、 make more than thewildest guess at how many they kill,but they are hungry creatures,not content with only three meals aday.It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one yearwould be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the countr
10、y.Lesson 3 Matterhorn manModem alpinists try to climb mountains by a route which will give them good sport,and the moredifficult it is,the more highly it is regarded.In the pioneering days,however,this was not the case at all.The early climbers were looking for the easiest way to the top,because the
11、 summit was the prize theysought,especially if it and never been attained before.It is true that during their explorations they oftenfaced difficulties and dangers of the most perilous nature,equipped in a manner with would make amodern climber shudder at the thought,but they did not go out of their
12、 way to court such excitement.They had a single aim,a solitary goal-the top!It is hard for us to realize nowadays how difficult it was for the pioneers.Except for one or twoplaces such as Zermatt and Chamonix,which had rapidly become popular,Alpine village tended to beimpoverished settlements cut of
13、f from civilization by the high mountains.Such inns as there weregenerally dirty and flea-ridden;the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread often twelve monthsold,all washed down with coarse wine.Often a valley boasted no inn at all,and climbers found shelterwherever they could sometimes with
14、 the local priest(who was usually as poor as his parishioners),sometimes with shepherds or cheese-makers.Invariably the background was the same:dirt and poverty,and very uncomfortable.For men accustomed to eating seven-course dinners and sleeping between finelinen sheets at home,the change to the Al
15、ps must have very hard indeed.Lesson 4 Seeing handsSeveral cases have been reported in Russia recently of people who can detect colours with theirfingers,and even see through solid and walls.One case concerns and eleven-year-old schoolgirl,VeraPetrova,who has normal vision but who can also perceive
16、things with different parts of her skin,andthrough solid walls.This ability was first noticed by her father.One day she came into his office andhappened to put her hands on the door of a locked safe.Suddenly she asked her father why he kept somany old newspapers locked away there,and even described
17、the way they were done up in bundles.Vera*s curious talent was brought to the notice of a scientific research institute in the town ofUlyanovsk,near where she lives,and in April she was given a series of tests by a special commission ofthe Ministry of Health of the Russian Federal Republic.During th
18、ese tests she was able to read anewspaper through an opaque screen and,stranger still,by moving her elbow over a childs game ofLotto she was able to describe the figures and colours printed on it;and,in another instance,wearingstockings and slippers,to make out with her foot the outlines and colours
19、 of a picture hidden under acarpet.Other experiments showed that her knees and shoulders had a similar sensitivity.During all thesetests Vera was blindfold;and,indeed,except when blindfold she lacked the ability to perceive thingswith her skin.It was also found that although she could perceive thing
20、s with her fingers this abilityceased the moment her hands were wet.Lesson 5 YouthPeople are always talking about the problem of youth*.If there is one which I take leave to doubtthen it is older people who create it,not the young themselves.Let us get down to fundamentals andagree that the young ar
21、e after all human beings people just like their elders.There is only onedifference between an old man and a young one:the young man has a glorious future before him and theold one has a splendid future behind him:and maybe that is where the rub is.When I was a teenager,I felt that I was just young a
22、nd uncertain-that I was a new boy in a hugeschool,and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem.Forone thing,being a problem gives you a certain identity,and that is one of the things the young are busilyengaged in seeking.I find young people exciting.The
23、y have an air of freedom,and they not a dreary commitment tomean ambitions or love of comfort.They are not anxious social climbers,and they have no devotion tomaterial things.All this seems to me to link them with life,and the origins of things.Ifs as if they were,in some sense,cosmic beings in viol
24、ent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures.All that is in mymind when I meet a young person.He may be conceited,ill-mannered,presumptuous or fatuous,but Ido not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect of elders-as if mere age were a reason forrespect.I accept that we are equals,a
25、nd I will argue with him,as an equal,if I think he is wrong.Lesson 6 The sporting spiritI am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations,andthat if only the common peoples of the would could meet one another at football or cricket,they wouldhave no inclina
26、tion to meet on the battlefield.Even if one didnt know from concrete examples(the 1936Olympic Games,for instance)that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred,one coulddeduce if from general principles.Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive.You play to win,and the g
27、ame has littlemeaning unless you do your utmost to win.On the village green,where you pick up sides and no feelingof local patriotism is involved,it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise:but as soon as a thequestion of prestige arises,as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit w
28、ill be disgraced if you lose,the most savage combative instincts are aroused.Anyone who has played even in a school football matchknows this.At the international level,sport is frankly mimic warfare.But the significant thing is not thebehaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators:and,b
29、ehind the spectators,of the nations whowork themselves into furies over these absurd contests,and seriously believe-at any rate for shortperiods that running jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.Lesson 7 BatsNot all sounds made by animals serve as language,and we have only to turn
30、 to that extraordinarydiscovery of echo-location in bats to see a case in which the voice plays a strictly utilitarian role.To get a full appreciation of what this means we must turn first to some recent human inventions.Eveiyone knows that if he shouts in the vicinity of a wall or a mountainside,an
31、 echo will come back.The further off this solid obstruction,the longer time will elapse for the return of the echo.A sound madeby tapping on the hull of a ship will be reflected from the sea bottom,and by measuring the time intervalbetween the taps and the receipt of the echoes,the depth of the sea
32、at that point can be calculated.Sowas bom the echo-sounding apparatus,now in general use in ships.Every solid object will reflect asound,varying according to the size and nature of the object.A shoal of fish will do this.So it is acomparatively simple step from locating the sea bottom to locating a
33、shoal of fish.With experience,andwith improved apparatus,it is now possible not only to locate a shoal but to tell if it is herring,cod,orother well-known fish,by the pattern of its echo.It has been found that certain bats emit squeaks and by receiving the echoes,they can locate andsteer clear of ob
34、stacles or locate flying insects on which they feed.This echo-location in bats is oftencompared with radar,the principle of which is similar.Lesson 8 Trading standardsChickens slaughtered in the United States,claim officials in Brussels,are not fit to grace Europeantables.No,say the American:our fow
35、l are fine,we simply clean them in a different way.These days,itis differences in national regulations,far more than tariffs,that put sand in the wheels of trade betweenrich countries.It is not just fanners who are complaining.An electric razor that meets the EuropeanUnions safety standards must be
36、approved by American testers before it can be sold in the United States,and an American-made dialysis machine needs the EU*s okay before is hits the market in Europe.As it happens,a razor that is safe in Europe is unlikely to electrocute Americans.So,ask businesseson both sides of the Atlantic,why h
37、ave two lots of tests where one would do?Politicians agree,inprinciple,so America and the EU have been trying to reach a deal which would eliminate the need todouble-test many products.They hope to finish in time for a trade summit between America and the EUon May 28TH.Although negotiators are optim
38、istic,the details are complex enough that they may behard-pressed to get a deal at all.Why?One difficulty is to construct the agreements.The Americans would happily reach one accordon standards for medical devices and them hammer out different pacts covering,say,electronic goodsand drug manufacturin
39、g.The EU-following fine continental traditions-wants agreement on generalprinciples,which could be applied to many types of products and perhaps extended to other countries.Lesson 9 Royal espionageAlfred the Great acted his own spy,visiting Danish camps disguised as a minstrel.In those dayswandering
40、 minstrels were welcome everywhere.They were not fighting men,and their harp was theirpassport.Alfred had learned many of their ballads in his youth,and could vary his programme withacrobatic tricks and simple conjuring.While Alfreds little army slowly began to gather at Athelney,the king himself se
41、t out to penetratethe camp of Guthrum,the commander of the Danish invaders.There had settled down for the winter atChippenham:thither Alfred went.He noticed at once that discipline was slack:the Danes had theself-confidence of conquerors,and their security precautions were casual.They lived well,on
42、theproceeds of raids on neighbouring regions.There they collected women as well as food and drink,and alife of ease had made them soft.Alfred stayed in the camp a week before he returned to Athelney.The force there assembled wastrivial compared with the Danish horde.But Alfred had deduced that the D
43、anes were no longer fit forprolonged battle:and that their commissariat had no organization,but depended on irregular raids.So,faced with the Danish advance,Alfred did not risk open battle but harried the enemy.He wasconstantly on the move,drawing the Danes after him.His patrols halted the raiding p
44、arties:hungerassailed the Danish army.Now Alfred began a long series of skirmishes and within a month the Daneshad sunendered.The episode could reasonably serve as a unique epic of royal espionage!Lesson 10 Silicon valleyTechnology trends may push Silicon Valley back to the future.Carver Mead,a pion
45、eer in integratedcircuits and a professor of computer science at the California Institute of Technology,notes there arenow work-stations that enable engineers to design,test and produce chips right on their desks,much theway an editor creates a newsletter on a Macintosh.As the time and cost of makin
46、g a chip drop to a fewdays and a few hundred dollars,engineers may soon be free to let their imaginations soar without beingpenalized by expensive failures.Mead predicts that inventors will be able to perfect powerfulcustomized chips over a weekend at the office-spawning a new generation of garage s
47、tart-ups andgiving the U.S.a jump on its foreign rivals in getting new products to market fast.Were got moregarages with smart people/Mead observes.*We really thrive on anarchy/And on Asians.Already,orientals and Asian Americans constitute the majority of the engineeringstaffs at many Valley firms.A
48、nd Chinese,Korean,Filipino and Indian engineers are graduating in drovesfrom Califomia*s colleges.As the heads of next-generation start-ups,these Asian innovators can draw oncustoms and languages to forge righter links with crucial Pacific Rim markets.For instance,Alex Au,aStanford Ph.D.from Hong Ko
49、ng,has set up a Taiwan factory to challenge Japans near lock on thememory-chip market.India-born N.Damodar Reddys tiny California company reopened an AT&T chipplant in Kansas City last spring with financing from the state of Missouri.Before it becomes a retirementvillage,Silicon Valley may prove a c
50、lassroom for building a global business.Lesson 11 How to grow oldSome old people are oppressed by the fear of death.In the young there is a justification for thisfeeling.Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter inthe thought that they have chea