大学英语精读文本4

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1、大学英语精读4Unit 1TextTwo college-age boys,unaware that making money usually involves hard work,are temptedby an advertisement that promises them an easy way to earn a lot of money.The boys soon learnthat if something seems to good to be true,it probably is.BIG BUCKS THE EASY WAYJohn G HubbellYou ought t

2、o look into this,1 I suggested to our two college-age sons.uIt might be a way toavoid the indignity of having to ask for money all the time.I handed them some magazines in aplastic bag someone bad hung on our doorknob.A message printed on the bag offered leisurely,lucrative work(Big Bucks the Easy W

3、ay!)of delivering more such bags.I dont mind the indignity/the older one answered.“I can live with it,his brother agreed.But it pains me,I said,to find that you both have been panhandling so long that it nolonger embarrasses you.The boys said they would look into the magazine-delivery thing.Pleased,

4、I left town on abusiness trip.By midnight I was comfortably settled in a hotel room far from home.The phonerang.It was my wife.She wanted to know how my day had gone.Great!*I enthused.How was your day?I inquired.Super!She snapped.Just super!And ifs only getting started.Another truck just pulled upou

5、t front.Another truck?The third one this evening.The first delivered four thousand Montgomery Wards.Thesecond brought four thousand Sears,Roebucks.I dont know what this one has,but Im sure it willbe four thousand of something.Since you are responsible,I thought you might like to know whatshappening.

6、What I was being blamed for,it turned out,was a newspaper strike which made it necessaryto hand-deliver the advertising inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper.Thecompany had promised our boys$600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sundaymorning.Piece of cake!our older

7、college son had shouted.Six hundred bucks!His brother had echoed,And we can do the job in two hoursBoth the Sears and Ward ads are four newspaper-size pages,1 my wife informed me.Thereare thirty-two thousand pages of advertising on our porch.Even as we speak,two big guys arecarrying armloads of pape

8、r up the walk.What do we do about all this?1“Just tell the boys to get busy,I instructed.Theyre college men.Theyll do what they haveto do.At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent message to telephonemy wife.Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering.There had been seve

9、ral more truckloadsof ad inserts.Theyre for department stores,dime stores,drugstores,grocery stores,auto storesand so on.Some are whole magazine sections.We have hundreds of thousands,maybe millions,ofpages of advertising here!They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house in stacks tallerthan

10、your oldest son.Theres only enough room for people to walk in,take one each of the eleveninserts,roll them together,slip a rubber band around them and slide them into a plastic bag.Wehave enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant in America!Her voice kept rising,asif working its way out

11、 of the range of the human ear.All this must be delivered by seven oclockSunday morning.Well,you had better get those guys banding and sliding as fast as they can,and Ell talk toyou later.Got a lunch date.When I returned,there was another urgent call from my wife.Did you have a nice lunch?she asked

12、sweetly.I had had a marvelous steak,but knew betterby now than to say so.Awful,I reported.Some sort of sour fish.Eel,I think.Good.Your college sons have hired their younger brothers and sisters and a couple ofneighborhood children to help for five dollars each.Assembly lines have been set up.In thel

13、anguage of diplomacy,there is movement.,n“Thats encouraging.1“No,its not,“she corrected.It*s very discouraging.Theyre been as it for hours.Plastic bagshave been filled and piled to the ceiling,but all this hasnt made a dent,not a dent,in the situation!Ils almost as if the inserts keep reproducing th

14、emselves!1Another thing,she continued.Your college sons must learn that one does not get the bestout of employees by threatening them with bodily harm.Obtaining an audience with son NO.1,I snarled,Ill kill you if threaten one of those kidsagain!Idiot!You should be offering a bonus of a dollar every

15、hour to the worker who fills themost bags.“But that would cut into our profit,he suggested.There wont be any profit unless those kids enable you to make all the deliveries on time.Ifthey dont,you two will have to remove all that paper by yourselves.And there will be no eatingor sleeping until it is

16、removed.There was a short,thoughtful silence.Then he said,Dad,you have just worked a profoundchange in my personality.uDo it!”“Yes,sir!”By the following evening,there was much for my wife to report.The bonus program hadworked until someone demanded to see the color of cash.Then some activist on the

17、work forceclaimed that the workers had no business settling for$5 and a few competitive bonuses while thebossed collected hundreds of dollars each.The organizer had declared that all the workers wereentitled to$5 per hour!They would not work another minute until the bosses agreed.The strike lasted l

18、ess than two hours.In mediation,the parties agreed on$2 per hour.Gradually,the huge stacks began to shrink.As it turned out,the job was completed three hours before Sundays 7 a.m.deadline.By thetime I arrived home,the boys had already settled their accounts:$150 in labor costs,$40 forgasoline,and a

19、like amountfor giftsboxes of candy for saintly neighbors who had volunteered station wagons and helpin delivery and dozen roses for their mother.This left them with$185 each about two-thirds theminimum wage for the 91 hours they worked.Still,it was enough,as one of them put it,toenable them to avoid

20、 indignity for quite a while.All went well for some weeks.Then one Saturday morning my attention was drawn to theodd goings-on of our two youngest sons.They kept carrying carton after carton from variouscomers of the house out the front door to curbside.I assumed their mother had enlisted them torem

21、ove junk for a trash pickup.Then I overheard them discussing finances.Geez,were going to make a lot of money!Were going to be rich!,1Investigation revealed that they were offering for sale or rent our entire library.No!No!I cried.You cant sell our books!,1“Geez,Dad,we thought you were done with them

22、!Youre never done with books/I tried to explain.Sure you are.You read them,and youre done with them.That*s it.Then you might as wellmake a little money from them.We wanted to avoid the indignity of having to ask you for.New Wordsbuckn.(si.)U.S.dollarplastica.塑料的n.(p l)塑料doorknobn.门把手leisurelya.unhur

23、ried从容的，慢慢的leisuren.free tim e空闲时间，闲暇lucrativea.profitable有利的；赚钱的painvt.cause pain topanhandlevi.(AmE)beg.esp.on the streetsdeliverydelivering(of letters,goods,etc.)投递；送交enthusevi.show enthusiasminquirevt.asksupera.(colloq.)wonderful,splendid;excellentsnapvt.say(sth.)sharply 厉声说insertn.插页normallyad.

24、in the usual conditions;ordinarily 通常companyn.公司echovt.say or do what another person says or does;repeat 附和；重复adn.(short for)advertisementinformvt.tell;give information 告知porchn.(AmE)veranda 门廊armloadn.as much as one arm or both arms can hold;armfulwalkn.a path specially arranged or paved for walkin

25、g 人行道unnaturallyad.in an unnatural way 不自然地quavervi.(of the voice or sound)shake;tremble 颤抖truckloadn.as much or as many as a truck can carrydepartment storen.store selling many different kinds of goods in separate departments 百货公司dimen.coin of U.S.and Canada worth ten centsdime storen.（AmE）a store

26、selling a large variety of low-priced articles;variety store 廉价商品店；小商口店drugstoren.（AmE）a store that sells not only medicine,but also beauty products,film,magazines,andfood药店，杂货店groceryn.a store that sells food and household supplies 食品杂货店sectionn.part of subdivision of a piece of writing,book,newspa

27、per,etc.;portion（文章等的）段落；节；部分cramvt.fill too full;force or press into a small space 把.塞满；把.塞进stackn.an orderly;heap or group of things 一叠（堆、垛等）bandn.flat,thin piece of material 带；带状物vt.tie up with a band 捆扎rubber bandn.橡皮筋takeouta.（餐馆）出售外卖菜的rangethe distance at which one can see or hear（听觉、视觉等）的范围ma

28、rvel(l)ousa.wonderful;astonishingsteakn.牛排；大块肉(或鱼)片soura.酸的eeln.鳗鲫diplomacyn.外交encouraginga.鼓舞人心的dentn.a hollow in a hard surface made by a blow or pressure;initial progress 凹痕，凹坑，初步进展reproducevt.produce the young of(oneself or ones own kind)生殖，繁殖bodilya.of the human body;physicalharmn.damage or wro

29、ng 伤害audiencen.the people gathered in a place to hear or see;a chance to be heard 观众；听众；陈述意见的机会snarlvt.speak in a harsh voice 咆哮着说bonusn.an extra payment to workers 奖金thoughtfula.give to or indicating thought 沉思的，思考的cashn.money in coins or notes 现金activistn.a person taking an active part esp.in a po

30、litical movement 激进分子work forcen.total number of workers employed in a particular factory,industry or area 工人总数；劳动人competitivea.竞争的organizern.person who organizes things 组织者mediationn.调解partyn.one of the people or sides in an agreement or argument 一方；当事人graduallyad.slowly and by degrees.graduala.shr

31、ink(shrank,shrunk)vi.become less or smaller 减少；变小deadlinen.fixed limit of finishing a piece of work 最后期限station wagonn.小型客车，客货两用车minimum(pl.minima or minimums)n.the smallest possible amount,number,e tc.最低限度的量、数等minimum wagen.the lowest wage permitted by law or by agreement for certain work 法定最工资odda

32、.strange;unusualgoings-onn.activities,usu.of an undesirable kindcartonn.a cardboard box for holding goods 纸板箱(或盒)curbsiden.the area of sidewalk at or near curb(curb:人行道的镶边石)enlistvt.obtain the support and help of;cause to join the armed forces 取得.的支持和帮助；征募trashn.waste material to be thrown away;rubb

33、ish 垃圾pickupn.a small light truck with an open back used for light deliveries 小卡车；轻型货车overhearvt.hear by chance;hear without the knowledge of the speaker(s)无意中听至lj；偷听至Ufinancen.money matters;(used in pl.)money;(science o f)the management of funds 财政；钱财；金融geezint.哎呀，呀salen.the act of selling sth.Phra

34、ses&Expressionspull upbring or come to a stop(使)停下a piece of cake(informal)sth.very easy to doeven asjust at the same moment asknow better thanbe wise or experienced enough not(to do sth.)明事理而不至于be atbe occupied with,be doingmake a dent(in)make less by a very small amount;reduce slightly;make a firs

35、t step towards success(in)减少一点；取得初步进展cut intoreduce;decrease 减少have no businesshave no right or reason 无权，没有理由settle foraccept,although not altogether satisfactory(无可奈何地)满足于settle ones accountpay what one owes 结帐quite a whilea fairly long timedraw(sb.*s)attention tomake sb.notice,or be aware offor s

36、aleintended to be soldfor rentavailable to be rentedbe done withstop doing or using;finish 做完，不再使用may/might/could as wellwith equal or better effect 不妨，还不如，最好Proper NamesMontgomery Ward蒙哥马利沃德百货公司Sears,Roebuck西尔斯一罗百克百货公司Unit 2TextIs there anything we can learn from deer?During the*energy crisis1 1 of

37、 1973-1974 the writerof this essay was living in northern Minnesota and was able to observe how deer survive whenwinter arrives.The lessons he learns about he way deer conserve energy turn out applicable to oureveryday life.DEER AND THE ENERGY CYCLESome persons say that love makes the world go round

38、.Others of a less romantic and morepractical turn of mind say that it isnrt love;its money.But the truth is that it is energy that makesthe world go round.Energy is the currency of the ecological system and life becomes possibleonly when food is converted into energy,which in turn is used to seek mo

39、re food to grow,toreproduce and to survive.On this cycle all life depends.It is fairly well known that wild animals survive from year to year by eating as much as theycan during times of plenty,the summer and fall,storing the excess,usually in the form of fat,andthen using these reserves of fat to s

40、urvive during the hard times in winter when food is scarce.Butit is probably less well known that even with their stored fat,wild animals spend less energy tolive in winter than in summer.A good case in point is the whiter-tailed deer.Like most wildlife,deer reproduce,grow,andstore fat in the summer

41、 and fall when there is plenty of nutritious food available.A physicallymature female deer in good condition who has conceived in November and given birth to twofawns during the end of May or first part of June,must search for food for the necessary energynot only to meet her body*s needs but also t

42、o produce milk for her fawns.The best milk productionoccurs at the same time that new plant growth is available.This is good timing,because milkproduction is an energy consuming process it requires a lot of food.The cost can not be metunless the region has ample food resources.As the summer progress

43、es and the fawns grow,they become less dependent on their mothersmilk and more dependent on growing plants as food sources.The adult males spend the summergrowing antlers and getting fat.Both males and females continue to eat high quality food in thefall in order to deposit body fat for the winter.I

44、n the case of does and fawns,a great deal of energyis expended either in milk production or in growing,and fat is not accumulated as quickly as it isin full grown males.Fat reserves are like bank accounts to be drawn on in the winter when foodsupplies are limited and sometimes difficult to reach bec

45、ause of deep snow.As fall turns into winter,other changes take place.Fawns lose their spotted coat.Hair on allthe deer becomes darker and thicker.The change in the hair coats is usually complete bySeptember and maximum hair depths are reached by November or December when the weatherbecomes cold.But

46、in addition,nature provides a further safeguard to help deer survive the winter-aninternal physiological response which lowers their metabolism,or rate of bodily functioning,andhence slows down their expenditure of energy.The deer become somewhat slow and drowsy.Theheart rate drops.Animals that hibe

47、rnate practice energy conservation to a greater extreme thandeer do.Although deer don*t hibernate,they do the same thing with their seasonal rhythms inmetabolism.Deer spend more energy and store fat in the summer and fall when food is abundant,and spend less energy and use stored fat in the winter w

48、hen food is less available.When the energy crisis1 first came in 1973-1974,1 was living with my family in a cabin onthe edge of an area where deer spend the winter in northern Minnesota,observing the deer as theirbehavior changed from more activity in summer and fall to less as winter progressed,fol

49、lowed byan increase again in the spring as the snow melted.Il was interesting and rather amusing to listento the advice given on the radio:Drive only when necessary,*we were told.HPut on more clothesto stay warm,and turn the thermostat on your furnace down.*Meanwhile we watched the deerreduce their

50、activity,grow a winter coat of hair,and reduce their metabolism as they have forthousands of years.It is biologically reasonable for deer to reduce their cost of living to increasetheir chance of surviving in winter.Not every winter is critical for deer of course.If the winter has light snow,surviva

51、l andproductivity next spring will be high.But if deep snows come and the weather remains cold forseveral weeks,then the deer must spend more energy to move about,food will be harder to find,and they must then depend more on their fat reserves to pull them through.If such conditions goon for too lon

52、g some will die,and only the largest and strongest are likely to survive.That is afundamental rule of life for wild,free wandering animal such as deer.Yes,lifeand death,too-is a cycle that goes round and round,and when animals die theirbodies become food for other life forms to use by converting the

53、m into energy.And the cycle continues.New WordsDeern.(sing,or pL)鹿romantica.belonging to or suggesting romance;fanciful not practical 浪漫的；幻想的turnn.a natural tendency;inclination(天生)倾 I句currencyn.money that is actually in use in a country 通货，货币ecologicala.of or concerning inteiTelationship of organis

54、ms and their environment 生态的ecologyn.生态学convertvt.change(from one form,use,etc.into another);cause(a person)to change his beliefs,etc.使转变；使改变信仰（等）excessn.the part that is more than enough;the condition of exceeding what is usual or necessary 过量；过度reserven.sth.that is being or has been stored for lat

55、er use 储备(物)scarce a.not available in sufficient quantity 缺乏的wildlifen.animals and plants which live and grow wildnutritiousa.full grown and developed 成熟的；成年的femalea.of the sex that gives birth to young 女(性)的；雌的n.a female person,animal or plantconceivevt.become pregnant with(young);form(an idea,plan

56、,etc.)in the mind 怀(胎)；构思fawnn.a young deer less than a year oldtimingn.selection for maximum effect of the precise moment for beginning or doing sth.时机的选择consumevt.eat or drink;use;use up 消耗;消费regionn.a place,space or area;a part of the body 地区；(身体的)部位amplea.plentiful 充裕的resourcen.(pl.)possessions(

57、esp.of a country),in the form of wealth and goods,that help one to do whatone wants 资源dependenta.relying(on another)for supportmalea.of the sex that does not give birth to young 男(性)的；雄的n.a male person,animal or plantantlern.the solid,bony horn of a male deer 鹿角，茸角depositvt.put or store for safe kee

58、ping;(esp.of a liquid,a river)leave lying(a layer of matter)存放；使沉积doen.a fully-grown female deerexpendvt.spend or use up 花费;耗尽accumulatev.make or become greater in number or quantity;collect or gather 积累；积聚accountn.a sum of money kept in a bank which may be added to or taken from 帐户；存款spotteda.marke

59、d with spotsdepthn.the state or degree of being deep 深；深度，厚度safeguardn.a means of protection against sth.unwanted 预防措施internala.of or in the inside,esp.of the body 内部的；体内的physiologicala.生理的；生理学的metabolismn.新陈代谢hencead.therefore 因此，所以expendituren.expending or using up;the amount of money,time,etc.exp

60、ended 花费；用光；支出额，费用somewhatad.by some degree or amount;a little 有点，稍微drowsya.sleepy or half sleepy;making one sleepy 困倦的；催眠的hibernatevi.(of some animals)pass the whole of the winter in a state like sleep 冬眠extremen.either end of anything;highest degree 极 力 常seasonala.depending on the season;changing

61、with the seasons 季节性的rhythmn.节奏abundanta.more than enough充足的；丰富的cabinn.a small roughly built,usu.wooden house 小木屋；茅舍meltv.cause(a solid)to become liquid;(of a solid)become liquid(使)融化；(使)熔化amusinga.funny逗人笑的；引起乐趣的amusevt.cause to laugh or smilethermostatn.an automatic device for regulating temperatu

62、re 恒温器biologicallya d.生物学上biological a.survivaln.the fact or likelihood of surviving 幸存productivityn.the ability or capacity to produce,productiveness 生产力；生产率;多产fundamentala.basic;most importantPhrases&Expressionsgo roundfunction smoothlyin the form of以形式in pointappropriate;pertinent 适用的；相关的in(good)

63、conditionin good health,physically fitgive birth(to)bear;(fig.)produce生(孩)子，产(仔)；产生，引起draw onlake or use as a source 利用；动用slow down(cause to)go more slowly than usual;(cause to)live,work,etc.in a less active and intenseway(使)慢下来：(使)放松turn downreduce the force,speed,loudness,etc.of(sth.)by using cont

64、rols 减弱;关小，调低move abouttravel around;go from one place to anotherpull throughhelp(sb.)to survive a period of danger or crisis 使渡过危险或危机Proper NameMinnesota明尼苏达（美国州名）Unit 3TextCan you prove that the earth is round?Go ahead and try!Will you rely on your senses or willyou have to draw on the opinions of

65、 experts?WHY DO WE BELIEVETHAT THE EARTH IS ROUND?George OrwellSomewhere or other-I think it is in the preface to saint Joan-Bernard Shaw remarks thatwe are more gullible and superstitious today than we were in the Middle Ages,and as an exampleof modern credulity he cites the widespread belief that

66、the earth is round.The average man,saysShaw,can advance not a single reason for thinking that the earth is round.He merely swallowsthis theory because there is something about it that appeals to the twentieth-century mentality.Now,Shaw is exaggerating,but there is something in what he says,and the question is worthfollowing up,for the sake of the light it throws on modem knowledge.Just why do we believe thatthe earth is round?I am not speaking of the few thousand astronomers,geographers and so f