2021年1月23日发(作者：泥浆护壁)


1. 000139
文科段子：艺术类音乐




It may seem strange that we're discussing music from a Broadway production in this
class,

Lion
King
especially,
since
it's
based
on
a
popular
Hollywood
movie.
I
mean
music preformed for Broadway theater in the heart of New York city surely would seem to
be in the western tradition of popular music and not have much in common with the music
we have been studying in this course,
such as gamelan
music of Indonesia,
or Zulu
chants
of
South
Africa,
music
that
developed
outside
the
western
tradition
of
Europe
and
America.
But in fact, musicians have a long-standing tradition of borrowing front one another's
cultures. And this production's director intentionally included both western and
non-western music. That way, some of the rhythms, instrument, and harmonies typical of
non-western music contrast with and
complement popular music
more familiar to
audiences
in North America and Europe, music like rock, jazz or Broadway style show tunes. So I
want to spend the rest of this class and most of the next one on the music from the show

Lion
King
as
a
way
of
summarizing
some
of
the
technical
distinctions
between
typical
western music and the non-western music that we've been studying. Now the African
influence on the music is clear. The story takes place in Africa. So the director got
a South African composer to write songs with a distinctly African sound. And the songs
even include words from African languages. But we'll get back to the African influence
later. First let's turn to the music that was written for the shadow puppet scenes in

of that region


2. 000143
理科段子：天文学



In ancient times, many people believed the earth was a flat disc. Well over
2,000
years
ago;
the
ancient
Greek
philosophers
were
able
to
put
forward
two
good
arguments proving that it was not. Direct observations of heavenly bodies were
the basis of both these arguments. First, the Greeks knew that during eclipses
of the moon the earth was
between
the sun and
the moon, and they saw
that during
these eclipses, the earth's shadow on the moon was always round, they realized
that this could be
true
only if the
earth
was spherical, It
the earth was a flat
disc, then its shadow during eclipses would not be a prefect circle; it would
be stretched out into a long ellipse. The second argument was based on what the
Greeks saw during their travels. They noticed that the North Star, or Polaris,
appeared
lower
in
the
sky
when
they
traveled
south,
in
the
more
northerly
regions,
the North Star appeared to them to be much higher in the sky. By the way, it was
also from this difference in the apparent position of the North Star that the
Greeks
first
calculated
the
approximate
distance
around
the
circumference
of
the
earth, a figure recorded in ancient documents says 400.000 stadium, that's the
plural
of
the
world
stadium.
Today,
it's
not
known
exactly
what
length
one
stadium
represents, but let's say it was about 200 meters, the length of many athletic
stadiums. This would make the Greek's estimate about twice the figure accepted
today, a very good estimate for those writing so long before even the first
telescope was invented.


3. 991044
文科段子：文学名著



Continuing our survey of the 19th century, let's take a look now at Harriet
Beecher Stowe. Now Stowe is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book
that
details
the
harshness
of
plantation
life
in
the
south.
The
book
was
extremely
popular in the United States as well as in other countries. Ironically though,
for
all
the
attention
given
to
Uncle
Tom's
Cabin,
it's
far
from
Stowe's
best
work.
She did write one other novel
about
life in the
south, but much of her
best work
has
nothing
with
the
south
at
all.
In
fact,
Stowe's
best
writing
is
about
village
life
in
the
New
England's
states
in
the
19th
century.
In
recording
to
the
customs
of the villages she wrote about, Stowe claimed that her purpose was to reflect
the
images
as
realistically
as
possible.
She
usually
succeeded,
for
her
settings
were
often
described
accurately
and
in
detail.
In
this
sense,
she
was
an
important
forerunner
to
the
realistic
movement
that
became
popular
later
in
the
19th
century.
She was one of the first writers to use local dialect for her characters when
they spoke. And she did this for 30 years before Mark Twain popularized the use
of local dialect. It makes sense that Stowe would write about New England life,
since
she
was
born
in
Connecticut.
As
a
young
woman
there,
she
worked
as
a
teacher.
The teaching job helped lead to her first published work, a geography book for
children. Later when she
was
married, her writing helped her support her family
financially. Throughout her life, she wrote poems, travel books, biographical
sketches and children's books, as well as novels for adults.


4. 991040
生活段子：噪音影响



I'm grad to see so many of you here. We've become really alarmed over the
health center by the number of students we are seeing, who are experiencing
hearing
loss.
First,
I
want
to
go
over
some
basic
about
hearing.
Then
we
can
take
a
look
at
our
school
environment
and
see
if
we
can
figure
out
some
ways
to
protect
hearing. The leading cause of preventable hearing loss is excessive noise. Too
much moderate noise for a long time or some types of intense noise for even a
short time can damage hearing. Loudness is measured in units called decibels.
One decibel is the lowest sound that the average person can here. Sounds up to
80
decibels
generally
aren't
harmful.
That's
noise
like
traffic
on
a
busy
street.
But anything louder than 80 decibels, especially with continuous exposure, may
eventually
hurt
your
hearing.
Once
you
are
up
to
around
140
decibels,
that's
like
a jet plane taking off, then you might even feel pain in your ears. And pains
are sure sign that your hearing's at risk. Even one exposure to a really loud
noise
at
close
range
can
cause
hearing
loss.
So
what
you
need
to
do
is
limit
your
exposure to harmful levels. If you pass along this handout, we can take a look
at the decibel level of some common campus sounds. Notice how loud those horns
are
that
people
take
to
football
games.
They
are
really
dangerous
if
blown
right
behind you. Now, let's try to generate a list of damaging noises


5. 990839
文科段子：电影艺术



To get us started this semester I am going to spend the first two classes
giving
you
background
lectures
about
some
basic
cinematic
concepts.
Once
you
are
a little more familiar with basic film terminology, we will be ready to look at
the
history
of
movies
in
the
United
States.
You'll
be
expected
to
attend
showing
of
films
on
Tuesday
evenings
at
7
o'clock
in
Jennings
Auditorium.
That's
our
lab.
Then during our Wednesday seminar, we'll discuss in depth the movie we saw the
night
before.
We
are
not
covering
silent
films
in
this
course.
We
will
begin
with
the first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. The next
week, we'll be looking at The Gold Diggers of 1933, a piece that is very
representative of the escapist trend in films released during the depression.
Some of the films we will be watching will probably be new to you, like Frank
Capra's
Why
We
Fight.
Others
you
might
have
already
seen
on
TV
like
Rebel
without
A
Cause
starring
James
Deane,
or
Stanley
Cooper's
Doctor's
Strange
Love.
However,
I hope you see even familiar film with new eye. In the last three weeks of the
course, we will be watching films from the 1980s and you'll choose one of them
as a subject for an extensive written critique. We'll talk more about the
requirements of the critique later in this semester

6. 990848
文科段子：历史发展



Last
time,
we
outlined
how
the
Civil
War
finally
got
started.
I
want
to
talk
today about the political management of the war on both sides: the north under
Abraham Lincoln and
the south
under
Jefferson Davis.
An important task
for both
of these presidents was to justify for their citizens just why the war was
necessary. In 1861, on July 4th, Lincoln gave his first major speech in which
he presented the northern reasons for the war. It was, he said, to preserve
democracy. Lincoln suggested that this war was a noble crusade that would
determine the future of democracy through out the world. For him the issue was
whether or not this government of the people, by the people could maintain its