练习口语需要我们无可匹敌的热情
NO.1
Population Growth
The growth of population during the past few centuries is no proof that population will continue to grow straight upward toward infinity and doom. On the contrary, demographic history offers evidence that population growth has not been at all constant. According to paleoecologist Edward Deevey, the past million years show three momentous changes. The first, a rapid increase in population around one m illion B.
C., followed the innovations of tool making and tool using. But when the new power from the use of tools has been exploited, the rate of world population growth fell and became almost stable. The next rapid jump in population started perhaps 10,000 years ago, when mankind began to keep herds, plow and plant the earth. Once again when initial productivity gains had been absorbed, the rate of population growth abated. These two episodes suggest that the third great change, the present rapid growth, which began in the West between 250 and 350 years ago, may also slow down when, or if, technology begins to yield fewer innovations. Of course, the current knowledge revolution may continue without foreseeable end. Either way - contrary to popular belief in constant geometric growth - population can be expected in the long run to adjust to productivity. And when one takes this view, population growth is seen to represent economic progress and human triumph rather than social failure.
人口增长
以往几个世纪人口的增长并不能证明人口会无限地直线向上增长直到毁灭的地步。 相反地，人口统计史料证明人口的增长完全不是稳定的。 古生态学家爱德华·狄维认为，在过去100万年间出现过3次重大的变动。 第一次在公元前100万年左右，随着在工具的制作和使用上的革新而出现人口迅速增长。 但当工具的使用所产生的新动力被充分利用以后，世界人口增长率下降并且趋于稳定。 第二次人口剧增大约始于人类开始蓄畜、垦耕的10，000年前。 一旦最初的生产力增长被吸收殆尽，人口的增长再次衰落。 以上两段说明，若技术革新的成果开始减少，从250到350年前就在西方开始出现的并且目前还在继续的人口迅速增长可能也会放慢。 当然，当前的知识革命也许会持续下去而无法预见其末来。 无论如何，与那种认为人口以几何级数持续增长的观点相反，从长远的观点来说，人口可望受到生产力的调节。 接受了这一观点，人口的增长就可以被看成是经济进步和人类胜利的标志，而不是社会衰败的标志。
NO.2 Food and Health
The food we eat seems to have profound effects on our health. Although science has made enormous steps in making food more fit to eat, it has, at the same time, made many foods unfit to eat. Some research has shown that perhaps eighty percent of all human illnesses are related to diet and forty percent of cancer is related to the diet as well, especially cancer of the colon. Different cultures are more prone to contract certain illnesses because of the food that is characteristic in these cultures. That food is related to illness is not a new discovery. In 1945, government researchers realized that nitrates and nitrites, commonly used to preserve color in meats, and other food additives, caused cancer. Yet, these carcinogenic additives remain in our food, and it becomes more difficult all the time to know which things in the packaging labels of processed food are helpful or harmful. The additives which we eat are not all so direct. Farmers often give penicillin to beef and poultry, and because of this, penicillin has been found in the milk of treated cows. Sometimes similar drugs are administered to animals not for medicinal purposes, but for financial reasons. The farmers are simply trying to fatten the animals in order to obtain a higher price on the market. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has tried repeatedly to control these procedures, the practices continue.
食品与健康
我们所吃的食物似乎对我们的健康有深远的影响。 尽管科学上已取得许多进展，使食物更适合我们食用，但与此同时它也使许多食物不宜食用了。 一些研究已经表明，人类大概有80%的疾病与饮食有关，40%的癌症，特别是结肠癌，也与饮食有关。 不同的文化会使人们更易患某些疾病，这是由这些文化的人们喜好的食物所致。 食物与疾病有关并不是新发现。 1945年，政府部门的科研工作者了解到，被广泛用于肉类以保持肉类色泽的硝酸盐、亚硝酸盐和其他的添加剂可诱发癌症。 可是这些致癌物质依然存在于我们的食物之中。 与此同时，要想知道加工食品标签上的哪些成分对健康有利，哪些成分对健康不利，变得更加困难了。 我们吃到的这些添加物并非都是如此直接的。 农民常给牛和家禽注射青霉素，因而在受过注射的牛所产牛奶里发现青霉素。 有时让家禽服用这类药物并非是为了治病，而是为了经济上的缘故。 农民们只是想使家畜长得更肥壮可以上市场上卖到好价钱。 虽然食物和药品管理局已一再设法控制这种情况的发生，但是这种行为仍在继续。
NO.3 The Source of Energy
A summary of the physical and chemical nature of life must begin, not on the Earth, but in the Sun; in fact, at the Sun's very center. It is here that is to be found the source of the energy that the Sun constantly pours out into space as light and heat. This energy is liberated at the center of the Sun as billions upon billions of nuclei of hydrogen atoms collide with each other and fuse together to form nuclei of helium, and in doing so, release some of the energy that is stored in the nuclei of atoms. The output of light and heat of the Sun requires that some 600 million tons of hydrogen be converted into helium in the Sun every second. This the Sun has been doing for several thousands of millions of years. The nuclear energy is released at the Sun's center as high-energy gamma radiation, a form of electromagnetic radiation like light and radio waves, only of very much shorter wavelength. This gamma radiation is absorbed by atoms inside the Sun to be reemitted at slightly longer wavelengths. This radiation, in its turn is absorbed and reemitted. As the energy filters through the layers of the solar interior, it passes through the X-ray part of the spectrum eventually becoming light. At this stage, it has reached what we call the solar surface, and can escape into space without being absorbed further by solar atoms. A very small fraction of the Sun's light and heat is emitted in such directions that after passing unhindered through interplanetary space, it hits the Earth.
能量的来源
概说生命的物理和化学特性必须始于太阳--确切地说，是太阳的核心，而非地球。 能量来自太阳的核心。 在这里，太阳不停地以光和热的形式向空间倾泻出能量。 数十亿计的氢原子核在太阳的核心碰撞并且聚变生成氦。 在此过程中一部分原本储存于原子核中的能量被释放出来。 太阳所产生的光和热需要每秒将六亿吨氢转化为氦。 这样的转化在太阳中已经持续几十亿年了。 核能在太阳的核心被释放为高能的伽马射线。 这是一种电磁射线，就象光波和无线电波一样，只是波长要短得多。 这种伽玛射线被太阳内的原子所吸收，然后重新释放为波长稍长一些的光波。 这新的射线再次被吸收，而后释放。 在能量由太阳内部一层层渗透出来的过程中，它经过了光谱中X 射线部分，最后变成了光。 在此阶段，能量到达我们所称的太阳表层，并且离散到空间而不再被太阳原子所吸收。 只有很小一部分太阳的光和热由此方向释放出来，并且未被阻挡，穿越星空，来到地球。
NO.4：Vision
Human vision like that of other primates has evolved in an arboreal environment. In the dense complex world of a tropical forest, it is more important to see well than to develop an acute sense of smell. In the course of evolution members of the primate line have acquired large eyes while the snout has shrunk to give the eye an unimpeded view. Of mammals only humans and some primates enjoy color vision. The red flag is black to the bull. Horses live in a monochrome world. Light visible
to human eyes however occupies only a very narrow band in the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Ultraviolet rays are invisible to humans though ants and honeybees are sensitive to them. Humans have no direct perception of infrared rays unlike the rattlesnake which has receptors tuned into wavelengths longer than 0.7 micron. The world would look eerily different if human eyes were sensitive to infrared radiation. Then instead of the darkness of night, we would be able to move easily in a strange shadowless world where objects glowed with varying degrees of intensity. But human eyes excel in other ways. They are in fact remarkably discerning in color gradation. The color sensitivity of normal human vision is rarely surpassed even by sophisticated technical devices.
视觉
人类的视觉，和其它灵长目动物的一样，是在丛林环境中进化出来的。 在稠密、复杂的热带丛林里，好的视觉比灵敏的嗅觉更加重要。 在进化过程中，灵长目动物的眼睛变大，同时鼻子变小以使视野不受阻碍。 在哺乳类动物中，只有人和一些灵长目动物能够分辨颜色。 红旗在公牛看来是黑色的，马则生活在一个单色的世界里。 然而，人眼可见的光在整个光谱中只占一个非常狭窄的频段。 人是看不到紫外线的，尽管蚂蚁和蜜蜂可以感觉到。 与响尾蛇不同，人也不能直接感受到红外线。 响尾蛇的感觉器可以感受波长超过0.7微米的光线。 如果人能感受到红外线的话，这世界看上去将十分不同，而且恐怖。 到那时，将与夜的黑暗相反，我们能轻易地在一个奇异的没有阴影的世界里走动。 任何物体都强弱不等地闪着光。 然而，人眼在其它方面有优越之处。 事实上，人眼对颜色梯度具有非凡的分辨能力。 普通人类的视觉感受色彩的灵敏程度，甚至连精密的技术装备都很难超越。
NO.5 Folk Cultures
A folk culture is a small isolated, cohesive, conservative, nearly self-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race with a strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals. Order is maintained through sanctions based in the religion or family and interpersonal relationships are strong. Tradition is paramount, and change comes infrequently and slowly. There is relatively little division of labor into specialized duties. Rather, each person is expected to perform a great variety of tasks, though duties may differ between the sexes. Most goods are handmade and subsistence economy prevails. Individualism is weakly developed in folk cultures as are social classes. Unaltered folk cultures no longer exist in industrialized countries such as the United States and Canada. Perhaps the nearest modern equivalent in Anglo America is the Amish, a German American farming sect that largely renounces the products and labor saving devices of the i
ndustrial age. In Amish areas, horse drawn buggies still serve as a local transportation device and the faithful are not permitted to own automobiles. The Amish's central religious concept of Demut "humility", clearly reflects the weakness of individualism and social class so typical of folk cultures and there is a corresponding strength of Amish group identity. Rarely do the Amish marry outside their sect. The religion, a variety of the Mennonite faith, provides the principal mechanism for maintaining orders.
By contrast a popular culture is a large heterogeneous group often highly individualistic and constantly changing. Relationships tend to be impersonal and a pronounced division of labor exists, leading to the establishment of many specialized professions. Secular institutions of control such as the police and army take the place of religion and family in maintaining order, and a money-based economy prevails. Because of these contrasts, "popular" may be viewed as clearly different from "folk". The popular is replacing the folk in industrialized countries and in many developing nations. Folk-made objects give way to their popular equivalent, usually because the popular item is more quickly or cheaply produced, is easier or time saving to use or leads more prestige to the owner.
民间文化
民间文化是小型的、孤立的、紧密的、保守的、近乎自给自足的群体，具有同样的习俗、同样的人种和强有力的家庭或部族结构以及高度发展的宗教仪式。 秩序由宗教或家庭的约束来维持，成员间的关系非常紧密，传统至高无上，很少有变动且变动缓慢。 劳动专业分工相对较少。 每个人都要做各类活计，尽管男女两性分工不同。 绝大多数物品是手工制造的，经济一般为自给自足型。 个人主义和社会阶层在民间文化群体中的发展十分薄弱。 在象美国和加拿大这样的工业化国家里，一成不变的民间文化群体已不复存在了。 在当代美洲的英语区，与民间文化最相似的群体也许算是Amish 。 Amish是美国的德裔农耕部落，他们基本上拒绝接受工业时代的大多数产品和节省劳力的设施。 在Amish 地区，轻便马车仍是当地的交通工具，信徒们不允许拥有汽车。 Amish宗教中的核心观念Demut 即谦卑典型地反映了在民间文化群中个人主义和阶级的不发达。 而与此同时，Amish 对群体的认同性却十分强。 Amish人很少和他们宗派以外的人通婚。 其宗教，作为Mennonite 信仰的一种，提供了维护秩序的主要机制。 相反，大众文化是包含不同种族的大群体，通常高度个性化而且不断在变化。 人际关系冷漠，劳动分工明确，由此产生了许多专门的职业。 世俗的控制机构，比如警察和军队，取代了宗教和家庭来维持秩序，而且实行的是货币经济。 由于存在着这些差异，" 大众的" 与" 民间的" 可谓大相径庭。 在工业化国家以及许多发展中国家里，大众文化正在取代民间文化。 民间制造的物品正让位于大众化产品，这通常是因为大众化的物品制造起来更快、更便宜，用起来更容易、更方便或者是能给其所有者带来更多的威望。
练习口语需要我们无可匹敌的热情
NO.1
Population Growth
The growth of population during the past few centuries is no proof that population will continue to grow straight upward toward infinity and doom. On the contrary, demographic history offers evidence that population growth has not been at all constant. According to paleoecologist Edward Deevey, the past million years show three momentous changes. The first, a rapid increase in population around one m illion B.
C., followed the innovations of tool making and tool using. But when the new power from the use of tools has been exploited, the rate of world population growth fell and became almost stable. The next rapid jump in population started perhaps 10,000 years ago, when mankind began to keep herds, plow and plant the earth. Once again when initial productivity gains had been absorbed, the rate of population growth abated. These two episodes suggest that the third great change, the present rapid growth, which began in the West between 250 and 350 years ago, may also slow down when, or if, technology begins to yield fewer innovations. Of course, the current knowledge revolution may continue without foreseeable end. Either way - contrary to popular belief in constant geometric growth - population can be expected in the long run to adjust to productivity. And when one takes this view, population growth is seen to represent economic progress and human triumph rather than social failure.
人口增长
以往几个世纪人口的增长并不能证明人口会无限地直线向上增长直到毁灭的地步。 相反地，人口统计史料证明人口的增长完全不是稳定的。 古生态学家爱德华·狄维认为，在过去100万年间出现过3次重大的变动。 第一次在公元前100万年左右，随着在工具的制作和使用上的革新而出现人口迅速增长。 但当工具的使用所产生的新动力被充分利用以后，世界人口增长率下降并且趋于稳定。 第二次人口剧增大约始于人类开始蓄畜、垦耕的10，000年前。 一旦最初的生产力增长被吸收殆尽，人口的增长再次衰落。 以上两段说明，若技术革新的成果开始减少，从250到350年前就在西方开始出现的并且目前还在继续的人口迅速增长可能也会放慢。 当然，当前的知识革命也许会持续下去而无法预见其末来。 无论如何，与那种认为人口以几何级数持续增长的观点相反，从长远的观点来说，人口可望受到生产力的调节。 接受了这一观点，人口的增长就可以被看成是经济进步和人类胜利的标志，而不是社会衰败的标志。
NO.2 Food and Health
The food we eat seems to have profound effects on our health. Although science has made enormous steps in making food more fit to eat, it has, at the same time, made many foods unfit to eat. Some research has shown that perhaps eighty percent of all human illnesses are related to diet and forty percent of cancer is related to the diet as well, especially cancer of the colon. Different cultures are more prone to contract certain illnesses because of the food that is characteristic in these cultures. That food is related to illness is not a new discovery. In 1945, government researchers realized that nitrates and nitrites, commonly used to preserve color in meats, and other food additives, caused cancer. Yet, these carcinogenic additives remain in our food, and it becomes more difficult all the time to know which things in the packaging labels of processed food are helpful or harmful. The additives which we eat are not all so direct. Farmers often give penicillin to beef and poultry, and because of this, penicillin has been found in the milk of treated cows. Sometimes similar drugs are administered to animals not for medicinal purposes, but for financial reasons. The farmers are simply trying to fatten the animals in order to obtain a higher price on the market. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has tried repeatedly to control these procedures, the practices continue.
食品与健康
我们所吃的食物似乎对我们的健康有深远的影响。 尽管科学上已取得许多进展，使食物更适合我们食用，但与此同时它也使许多食物不宜食用了。 一些研究已经表明，人类大概有80%的疾病与饮食有关，40%的癌症，特别是结肠癌，也与饮食有关。 不同的文化会使人们更易患某些疾病，这是由这些文化的人们喜好的食物所致。 食物与疾病有关并不是新发现。 1945年，政府部门的科研工作者了解到，被广泛用于肉类以保持肉类色泽的硝酸盐、亚硝酸盐和其他的添加剂可诱发癌症。 可是这些致癌物质依然存在于我们的食物之中。 与此同时，要想知道加工食品标签上的哪些成分对健康有利，哪些成分对健康不利，变得更加困难了。 我们吃到的这些添加物并非都是如此直接的。 农民常给牛和家禽注射青霉素，因而在受过注射的牛所产牛奶里发现青霉素。 有时让家禽服用这类药物并非是为了治病，而是为了经济上的缘故。 农民们只是想使家畜长得更肥壮可以上市场上卖到好价钱。 虽然食物和药品管理局已一再设法控制这种情况的发生，但是这种行为仍在继续。
NO.3 The Source of Energy
A summary of the physical and chemical nature of life must begin, not on the Earth, but in the Sun; in fact, at the Sun's very center. It is here that is to be found the source of the energy that the Sun constantly pours out into space as light and heat. This energy is liberated at the center of the Sun as billions upon billions of nuclei of hydrogen atoms collide with each other and fuse together to form nuclei of helium, and in doing so, release some of the energy that is stored in the nuclei of atoms. The output of light and heat of the Sun requires that some 600 million tons of hydrogen be converted into helium in the Sun every second. This the Sun has been doing for several thousands of millions of years. The nuclear energy is released at the Sun's center as high-energy gamma radiation, a form of electromagnetic radiation like light and radio waves, only of very much shorter wavelength. This gamma radiation is absorbed by atoms inside the Sun to be reemitted at slightly longer wavelengths. This radiation, in its turn is absorbed and reemitted. As the energy filters through the layers of the solar interior, it passes through the X-ray part of the spectrum eventually becoming light. At this stage, it has reached what we call the solar surface, and can escape into space without being absorbed further by solar atoms. A very small fraction of the Sun's light and heat is emitted in such directions that after passing unhindered through interplanetary space, it hits the Earth.
能量的来源
概说生命的物理和化学特性必须始于太阳--确切地说，是太阳的核心，而非地球。 能量来自太阳的核心。 在这里，太阳不停地以光和热的形式向空间倾泻出能量。 数十亿计的氢原子核在太阳的核心碰撞并且聚变生成氦。 在此过程中一部分原本储存于原子核中的能量被释放出来。 太阳所产生的光和热需要每秒将六亿吨氢转化为氦。 这样的转化在太阳中已经持续几十亿年了。 核能在太阳的核心被释放为高能的伽马射线。 这是一种电磁射线，就象光波和无线电波一样，只是波长要短得多。 这种伽玛射线被太阳内的原子所吸收，然后重新释放为波长稍长一些的光波。 这新的射线再次被吸收，而后释放。 在能量由太阳内部一层层渗透出来的过程中，它经过了光谱中X 射线部分，最后变成了光。 在此阶段，能量到达我们所称的太阳表层，并且离散到空间而不再被太阳原子所吸收。 只有很小一部分太阳的光和热由此方向释放出来，并且未被阻挡，穿越星空，来到地球。
NO.4：Vision
Human vision like that of other primates has evolved in an arboreal environment. In the dense complex world of a tropical forest, it is more important to see well than to develop an acute sense of smell. In the course of evolution members of the primate line have acquired large eyes while the snout has shrunk to give the eye an unimpeded view. Of mammals only humans and some primates enjoy color vision. The red flag is black to the bull. Horses live in a monochrome world. Light visible
to human eyes however occupies only a very narrow band in the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Ultraviolet rays are invisible to humans though ants and honeybees are sensitive to them. Humans have no direct perception of infrared rays unlike the rattlesnake which has receptors tuned into wavelengths longer than 0.7 micron. The world would look eerily different if human eyes were sensitive to infrared radiation. Then instead of the darkness of night, we would be able to move easily in a strange shadowless world where objects glowed with varying degrees of intensity. But human eyes excel in other ways. They are in fact remarkably discerning in color gradation. The color sensitivity of normal human vision is rarely surpassed even by sophisticated technical devices.
视觉
人类的视觉，和其它灵长目动物的一样，是在丛林环境中进化出来的。 在稠密、复杂的热带丛林里，好的视觉比灵敏的嗅觉更加重要。 在进化过程中，灵长目动物的眼睛变大，同时鼻子变小以使视野不受阻碍。 在哺乳类动物中，只有人和一些灵长目动物能够分辨颜色。 红旗在公牛看来是黑色的，马则生活在一个单色的世界里。 然而，人眼可见的光在整个光谱中只占一个非常狭窄的频段。 人是看不到紫外线的，尽管蚂蚁和蜜蜂可以感觉到。 与响尾蛇不同，人也不能直接感受到红外线。 响尾蛇的感觉器可以感受波长超过0.7微米的光线。 如果人能感受到红外线的话，这世界看上去将十分不同，而且恐怖。 到那时，将与夜的黑暗相反，我们能轻易地在一个奇异的没有阴影的世界里走动。 任何物体都强弱不等地闪着光。 然而，人眼在其它方面有优越之处。 事实上，人眼对颜色梯度具有非凡的分辨能力。 普通人类的视觉感受色彩的灵敏程度，甚至连精密的技术装备都很难超越。
NO.5 Folk Cultures
A folk culture is a small isolated, cohesive, conservative, nearly self-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race with a strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals. Order is maintained through sanctions based in the religion or family and interpersonal relationships are strong. Tradition is paramount, and change comes infrequently and slowly. There is relatively little division of labor into specialized duties. Rather, each person is expected to perform a great variety of tasks, though duties may differ between the sexes. Most goods are handmade and subsistence economy prevails. Individualism is weakly developed in folk cultures as are social classes. Unaltered folk cultures no longer exist in industrialized countries such as the United States and Canada. Perhaps the nearest modern equivalent in Anglo America is the Amish, a German American farming sect that largely renounces the products and labor saving devices of the i
ndustrial age. In Amish areas, horse drawn buggies still serve as a local transportation device and the faithful are not permitted to own automobiles. The Amish's central religious concept of Demut "humility", clearly reflects the weakness of individualism and social class so typical of folk cultures and there is a corresponding strength of Amish group identity. Rarely do the Amish marry outside their sect. The religion, a variety of the Mennonite faith, provides the principal mechanism for maintaining orders.
By contrast a popular culture is a large heterogeneous group often highly individualistic and constantly changing. Relationships tend to be impersonal and a pronounced division of labor exists, leading to the establishment of many specialized professions. Secular institutions of control such as the police and army take the place of religion and family in maintaining order, and a money-based economy prevails. Because of these contrasts, "popular" may be viewed as clearly different from "folk". The popular is replacing the folk in industrialized countries and in many developing nations. Folk-made objects give way to their popular equivalent, usually because the popular item is more quickly or cheaply produced, is easier or time saving to use or leads more prestige to the owner.
民间文化
民间文化是小型的、孤立的、紧密的、保守的、近乎自给自足的群体，具有同样的习俗、同样的人种和强有力的家庭或部族结构以及高度发展的宗教仪式。 秩序由宗教或家庭的约束来维持，成员间的关系非常紧密，传统至高无上，很少有变动且变动缓慢。 劳动专业分工相对较少。 每个人都要做各类活计，尽管男女两性分工不同。 绝大多数物品是手工制造的，经济一般为自给自足型。 个人主义和社会阶层在民间文化群体中的发展十分薄弱。 在象美国和加拿大这样的工业化国家里，一成不变的民间文化群体已不复存在了。 在当代美洲的英语区，与民间文化最相似的群体也许算是Amish 。 Amish是美国的德裔农耕部落，他们基本上拒绝接受工业时代的大多数产品和节省劳力的设施。 在Amish 地区，轻便马车仍是当地的交通工具，信徒们不允许拥有汽车。 Amish宗教中的核心观念Demut 即谦卑典型地反映了在民间文化群中个人主义和阶级的不发达。 而与此同时，Amish 对群体的认同性却十分强。 Amish人很少和他们宗派以外的人通婚。 其宗教，作为Mennonite 信仰的一种，提供了维护秩序的主要机制。 相反，大众文化是包含不同种族的大群体，通常高度个性化而且不断在变化。 人际关系冷漠，劳动分工明确，由此产生了许多专门的职业。 世俗的控制机构，比如警察和军队，取代了宗教和家庭来维持秩序，而且实行的是货币经济。 由于存在着这些差异，" 大众的" 与" 民间的" 可谓大相径庭。 在工业化国家以及许多发展中国家里，大众文化正在取代民间文化。 民间制造的物品正让位于大众化产品，这通常是因为大众化的物品制造起来更快、更便宜，用起来更容易、更方便或者是能给其所有者带来更多的威望。