全新版大学英语快速阅读3

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1、全新版大学英语快速阅读3Unit 1Why I Love the CityA lot of my friends are moving out of the city.They re buyinghouses in the suburbs because they want to get away from the noise,smog,traffic,and crime of the city.One friend says,“Theres too much airpollution in the city.I prefer the suburbs,where the air is clea

2、n.”Another friend complains about the traffic:There are too many carsdowntown!You cant find a parking place,and the traffic jams areterrible.Everyone complains about crime:The city is full ofcriminals.I rarely leave my house at night一its too dangerous.，zBefore my friends move out of the city,they us

3、ually recite theadvantages of suburban life:green grass,flowers,swimming pools,barbecues,and so on.Yet after my friends have lived there for a yearor so,they realize that suburban life is not so pleasant as they wereexpecting.What causes this change?Their gardens!They soon learn thatone unavoidable

4、part of suburban life is yardwork.After they work allweekend in their gardens,they re much too tired to take a swim in theirpools or even to cook some meat on their barbecues.And they have anothercomplaint:they cant live in the suburbs without a car.Most of myfriends moved to the suburbs to avoid tr

5、affic,but now they have tocommute to work downtown.They sit on a busy freeway two hours everyday!My opinions about urban life are very different from my friends一I live downtown?and I love it!Why?Well,first,I love nature-flowers,green grass,trees,and animals.In the city,I have all theadvantages of na

6、ture:I can walk through the public park,smell theflowers,and sit on the grass under the trees.I can visit the animalsin the zoo.Yet I have none of the disadvantages:I don，t have to doyardwork or feed the animals.Also,in the city,I can get everywhereby bus?if there，s a traffic jam,I can walk home.It

7、seems that everyone is moving to the suburbs to avoid the crimeof the big cities.I have a theory about urban crime,however,so I feelsafe downtown.The criminal life will reflect changes in society:ifpeople are buying homes in the suburbs,the criminals will soon follow.Criminals want to avoid noise,sm

8、og,and pollution,too.Soon,overcrowding and crime will be problems of the suburbs instead of thecity!P eople on the M oveThe history of the American people is,in part,the history ofthe movement of the American people.They moved from the colonies ofthe East Coast to the open spaces of the West.They mo

9、ved from the countryand the farm to the city.M ore recently,Americans have been moving fromthe cities to the suburbs.Open Space;The M ove WestP ioneer Americans began moving from the East Coast to the West250 years ago.They moved west for many reasons.One reason was theavailability of unlimited open

10、 space and land for farming.Americansliked large open spaces,and they also liked the freedom andindependence to develop the land in their own way.Some of the landbecame farms.Important minerals were discovered in some areas,so someof the land became mines.Other large areas became cattle ranches.Ther

11、eseemed to be enough land for everybody.But it was a difficult life一a life of endless work and hardship.The CitiesAfter 1860,the Industrial Revolution changed the United States.Americans learned how to manufacture steel.They began to producepetroleum.The automobile was invented.Factories of all kind

12、s beganto appear,and cities began to grow up around the factories.Farmersand other country people moved to the growing cities in order to findjobs and an easier life.In the early 1900s,the cities were busy,exciting places.However,there was also a lot of poverty and hardship.The cities grew up一the bu

13、ildings got taller-and the cities grewout一they spread out from the center.P rivate houses with yards andporches disappeared.Apartment buildings,each one taller than the next,took their place.M ore and more people moved to the cities,and thecities got bigger and bigger.Some cities could not spread ou

14、t because there was no room to doso.These cities,of which New York is the best example,became moreand more crowded.More people meant more cars,trucks,and buses,morenoise,more pollution,and more crime.Many cities became ugly and dirty.Some people and some businesses began to leave the cities and move

15、 tothe suburbs outside the cities.The SuburbsThe move to the suburbs is s till happening.Americans are lookingfor a small piece of land that they can call their own.They want a housewith a yard.However,they do not want to give up the good jobs theyhave in the city.In many cases,companies in the subu

16、rbs give them jobs.In other cases,Americans tend to commute to and from the cities wheretheir jobs are.In recent years,more and more businesses are movingto the suburbs.They are attracting many people and the suburbs arebecoming crowded.What Next?Americans have watched their big cities fall slowly i

17、ntodisrepair and die.Many middle-class people have left the cities,andonly the very rich and the very poor are staying behind.Concerned Americans are trying to solve the problems of noise,dirt,crime,and pollution in the big cities.They are trying to rebuildbad sections of the cities in order to attr

18、act and keep business people.They are trying to make their cities beautiful.Now many Americans arethinking of moving back to the cities.Other Americans are finding that even the suburbs have become toocrowded.They are looking for unpolluted open spaces and for anindependent way of life.They are read

19、y to move from the suburbs to thecountry.Perhaps Americans will always be on the move.Caution:Bumpy Road AheadStudents graduating from colleges today are not fully preparedto deal with the“real world.，z It is my belief that college studentsneed to be taught more skills and information to enable them

20、 to meetthe challenges that face everyone in daily life.The areas in whichstudents need training are playing the credit game,planning theirpersonal financial strategy,and consumer awareness.Learning how to obtain and use credit is probably the mostvaluable knowledge a young person can have.Credit is

21、 a dangerous toolthat can be of tremendous help if it is handled with caution.Havingcredit can enable people to obtain material necessities before they havethe money to purchase them outright.But unfortunately,many,many youngpeople get carried away with their handy plastic credit cards and awakeone

22、day to find they are in serious financial debt.Learning how to usecredit properly can be a very difficult and painful lesson indeed.Of equal importance is learning how to plan a personal budget.People have to know how to control money;otherwise,it can control them.Students should leave college knowi

23、ng how to allocate their money forliving expenses,insurance,savings,and so forth in order to avoid the0h,no!I m flat broke and I dont get paid again for two weeks!anxiety syndrome.Along with learning about credit and personal financial planning,graduating college students should be trained as consum

24、ers.Theconsumer market today is flooded with a variety of products and servicesof varying quality and prices.A young person entering the real world”is suddenly faced with difficult decisions about which product to buyor whose services to engage.He is usually unaware of such things asreturn policies,

25、guarantees,or repair procedures.Information of thissort is vital knowledge to everyday living.For a newly graduated college student,the“real world can bea scary place to be when he or she is faced with such issues as handlingcredit,planning a budget,or knowing what to look for when making apurchase

26、and whom to purchase it from.Entering this real world couldbe made less painful if persons were educated in dealing with these areasof daily life.What better place to accomplish this than in college?Memory Lane Isnt What It Used to BeAbout this time every year,I get very nostalgic.Walking throughmy

27、neighborhood on a fall afternoon reminds me of a time not too longago when sounds of children filled the air,children playing games ona hill,and throwing leaves around in the street below,I was one ofthose children,carefree and happy.I live on a street that is only oneblock long.I have lived on the

28、same street for sixteen years.I lovemy street.One side has six houses on it,and the other has only twohouses,with a small hill in the middle and a huge cottonwood tree onone end.When I think of home,I think of my street,only I see it asit was before.Unfortunately,things change.One day,not long ago,I

29、looked around and saw how different everything has become.Life on mystreet will never be the same because neighbors are quickly growing old,friends are growing up and leaving,and the city is planning to destroymy precious hill and sell the property to contractors.It is hard for me to accept that man

30、y of my wonderful neighborsare growing old and won*t be around much longer.I have fond memoriesof the couple across the street,who sat together on their porch swingalmost every evening,the widow next door who yelled at my brother andme for being too loud,and the crazy old man in a black suit who dro

31、vean old car.In contrast to those people,the people I see today are veryold neighbors who have seen better days.The man in the black suit sayshe wants to die,and another neighbor just sold his house and moved intoa nursing home.The lady who used to yell at us is too tired to botheranymore,and the co

32、uple across the street rarely go out to their frontporch these days.It is difficult to watch these precious people as theynear the end of their lives because at one time I thought they wouldlive forever.The“comings and goings“of the younger generation of my streetare now mostly“goings“as friends and

33、 peers move on.Once upon a time,my life and the lives of my peers revolved around home.The boundaryof our world was the gutter at the end of the street.We got pleasurefrom playing night games,or from a breathtaking ride on a tricycle.Things are different now,as my friends become adults and move on.C

34、hildren who rode tricycles now drive cars.The kids who once playedwith me now have new interests and values as they go their separate ways.Some have gone away to college,a few got married,two went into thearmy,and one went to prison.Watching all these people grow up and goaway only makes me long for

35、 the good old days.Perhaps the biggest change on my street is the fact that the cityis going to turn my precious hill into several lots for new homes.Forsixteen years,the view out of my kitchen window has been a view of thathill.The hill was a fundamental part of my childhood life;it was thehub of s

36、ocial activity for the children of my street.We spent hoursthere building forts,sledding,and playing tag.The view out of mykitchen window now is very different;it is one of tractors and dumptrucks tearing up the hill.When the hill goes,the neighborhood willnot be the same.It is a piece of my childho

37、od.It is a visual reminderof being a kid.Without the hill,my street will be just another peain the pod.There was a time when my street was my world,and I thought myworld would never change.But something happened.People grow up,andpeople grow old.Places change,and with the change comes the heartacheo

38、f knowing I can never go back to the times I loved.In a year or so,I will be gone just like many of my neighbors.I will always look backto my years as a child,but the place I remember will not be the silentstreet whose peace is interrupted by the sounds of construction.It willbe the happy,noisy,some

39、what strange,but wonderful street I knew asa child.Unit 2Rosa Parks一A Hero of Civil RightsMost historians say that the beginning of the modern civil rightsmovement in the United States was December 1,195 5.That was the daywhen an unknown seamstress in Montgomery,Alabama refused to give upher bus sea

40、t to a white passenger.This brave woman,Rosa Parks,wasarrested and fined for violating a city law.However,her act of defiancebegan a movement that ended the laws that racially segregated America.Because of this,she also became an inspiration to freedom-loving peopleeverywhere.Rosa Parks was born on

41、February 4,1913 in Tuskegee,Alabama.Herparents,James McCauley,a carpenter,and Leona McCauley,a teacher,named her Rosa Louise McCauley.When she was two,she moved to hergrandparentfarm in Alabama with her mother and younger brother,Sylvester.At the age of 11,she became a student at the Montgomery-Indu

42、strial School for Girls,a private school.The school believed thatself-esteem was the key to success.This was consistent with Rosa smother s advice to“take advantage of the opportunities,no matter howfew they were.z，And the opportunities were few indeed.Mrs.Parks said in aninterview:Back then,we didn

43、，t have any civil rights.It was just amatter of survival,of existing from one day to the next.I remembergoing to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing alynching and being afraid the house would burn down.In the same interview,she explained that she felt fearless,because she had

44、always been faced with fear.This fearlessness gave herthe courage to fight her conviction during the bus boycott.I didnthave any special fear,“she said.It was more of a relief to know thatI wasn，t alone.”After attending Alabama State Teachers College,Rosa settled inMontgomery,with her husband,Raymon

45、d Parks.The couple joined the localchapter of the NAACP and worked for many years to improve the conditionsof African-Americans in the segregated South.The bus incident led to the formation of the MontgomeryImprovement Association.The Association s leader was a young pastorof the Dexter Avenue Bapti

46、st Church named Dr.Martin Luther King,Jr.They called for a boycott of the city-owned bus company.The boycottlasted 382 days and brought recognition to Mrs.Parks,Dr.King,andtheir cause.A Supreme Court decision struck down the Montgomery lawunder which Mrs.Parks had been fined,and outlawed racial segr

47、egationon public transportation.After her husband died,Mrs.Parks founded the Rosa and RaymondParks Institute for Self-Development.The Institute sponsors an annualsummer program for teenagers called Pathways to Freedom.The youngpeople tour the country in buses learning the history of their countryand

48、 of the civil rights movement.Best of Friends,Worlds ApartHavana,sometime before 1994:As dusk descends on the quaintseaside village of Guanabo,two young men kick a soccer ball back andforth and back and forth across the sand.The tall one,Joel Ruiz,isblack.The short,muscular one,Achmed Valdes,is whit

49、e.They are the best of friends.Miami,January 2000:Mr.Valdes is playing soccer,as he doesevery Saturday,with a group of light-skinned Latinos in a park nearhis apartment.Mr.Ruiz surprises him with a visit,and Mr.Valdes,flushed and sweating,runs to greet him.They shake hands warmly.But when Mr.Valdes

50、darts back to the game,Mr.Ruiz stands offto the side,arms crossed,looking on as his childhood friend plays thegame that was once their shared joy.Mr.Ruiz no longer plays soccer.He prefers basketball with black Latinos and African-Americans from hisneighborhood.The two men live only four miles apart,

51、not even 15 minutes bycar.Yet they are separated by a far greater distance,one they say theynever imagined back in Cuba.In ways that are obvious to the black man but far less so to thewhite one,they have grown apart in the United States because of race.For the first time,they inhabit a place where t

52、he color of their skindefines the outlines of their lives-where they live,the friends theymake,how they speak,what they wear,even what they eat.Its like I am here and he is over there,Mr.Ruiz said,“Andwe cant cross over to the other s world.z，It is not that,growing up in Cuba s mix of black and whit

53、e,theywere unaware of their difference in color.Fidel Castro may haveofficially put an end to racism in Cuba,but that does not mean racismhas simply gone away.Still,color was not what defined them.Nationality,they had been taught,meant far more than race.They felt,above all,Cuban.Here in America,Mr.

54、Ruiz still feels Cuban.But above all he feelsblack.His world is a black world,and to live there is to be constantlyconscious of race.He works in a black-owned bar,dates black women,goes to an African-American barber.White barbers,he says,dontunderstand black hair.He generally avoids white neighborho

55、ods,andwhen his world and the white world meet,he feels always watched,andhe is always watchful.For Joel Ruiz,there is little time for relaxation.On this night,he works as a cashier at his uncle s bar in a black Miami neighborhood.Mr.Valdes,who is 29,a year younger than his childhood friend,is simpl

56、y,comfortably Cuban,an upwardly mobile citizen of the Miamimainstream.He lives in an all-white neighborhood,hangs out with whiteCuban friends and goes to black neighborhoods only when his job,as adeliveryman for Restonic mattresses,forces him to.When he thinks aboutrace,which is not very often,it is

57、 in terms learned from other whiteCubans:American blacks,he now believes,are to be avoided because theyare dangerous and resentful of whites.The only blacks he trusts,hesays,are those he knows from Cuba.Since leaving Havana in separate boats in 1994,the two friendshave seen each other just a handful

58、 of times in M iami一at a funeral,a baby shower,a birthday party and that soccer game,a meeting arrangedfor a newspaper photographer.They have visited each other s homes onlyonce.They say they remain as good friends as ever,yet they both knowthere is little that binds them anymore but their memories.

59、Had theynot become best friends in another country,in another time,they wouldnot be friends at all today.Coming to an Awareness of LanguageIt was because of my letters(which M alcolm X wrote to peopleoutside while he was in jail)that I happened to stumble upon startingto acquire some kind of a homem

60、ade education.I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express whatI wanted to convey in letters that I wrote.And every book I pickedup had few sentences which didn，t contain anywhere from one to nearlyall the words that might as well have been in Chinese.When I skippedthose words,of co

61、urse,I really ended up with little idea of what thebook said.I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary to study,to learn some words.I requested a dictionary along withsome notebooks and pencils from the Norfolk P rison Colony school.I spent two days just turning uncertainly t

62、he pages of adictionary.I d never realized so many words existed!I didnt knowwhich words I needed to learn.Finally,just to start some kind of action,I began copying.In my slow,painstaking,ragged handwriting,I copied into mynotebook everything printed on that first page,down to the punctuationmarks.I

63、 believe it took me a day.Then,aloud,I read back to myselfeverything I d written in the notebook.Over and over,aloud,to myself,I read my own handwriting.I woke up the next morning,thinking aboutthose words一immensely proud to realize that not only had I written somuch at one time,but I d written word

64、s that I never knew were in theworld.M oreover,with a little effort,I also could remember what manyof these words meant.I reviewed the words whose meanings I didntremember.Funny thing,from the dictionary*s first page right now,thataardvark springs to my mind.The dictionary had a picture of it,along-

65、tailed,long-eared,burrowing African mammal,which lives offtermites caught by sticking out its tongue as an anteater does for ants.I was so fascinated that I went on-I copied the dictionary snext page.And the same experience came when I studied that.With everysucceeding page,I also learned of people

66、and places and events fromhistory.Actually,the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia.Finally,the dictionary s A section had filled a whole notebook一andI went on into the B s.That was the way I started copying whateventually became the entire dictionary.It went a lot faster after somuch practice helped me to pick up handwriting speed.I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened,Icould for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin tounderstand what the book was sayin