-
【新概念英语双语版】
背诵短文系列（
01-10
）篇
目录
Unit1: The
Language of Music
音乐的语言
Unit2:
Schooling and Education
上学与受教育
Unit3: The
Definition of Price
价格
的定义
Unit4: Electricity
电
Unit5: The
Beginning of Drama
戏剧的起源
Unit6:
Television
电视
Unit7: Andrew Carnegie
安德鲁
?
卡内基
Unit8: American Revolution
美国革命
Unit9:
Suburbanization
郊区的发展
1
Unit10: Types of Speech
语言的类型
Unit1: The Language of Music
A painter hangs his or her finished
pictures on a wall, and everyone can see it. A
composer
writes
a
work,
but
no
one
can
hear
it
until
it
is
performed.
Professional
singers and
players have great responsibilities, for the
composer is utterly dependent
on
them.
A
student
of
music
needs
as
long
and
as
arduous
a
training
to
become
a
performer as a medical student needs to
become a doctor. Most training is concerned
with technique, for musicians have to
have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a
ballet
dancer.
Singers
practice
breathing
every
day,
as
their
vocal
chords
would
be
inadequate
without
controlled
muscular
support.
String
players
practice
moving
the
fingers of the left hand up and down,
while drawing the bow to and fro with the right
arm
—
two entirely
different movements.
Singers
and
instruments
have
to
be
able
to
get
every
note
perfectly
in
tune.
Pianists are spared
this particular anxiety, for the notes are already
there, waiting for
them, and it is
the piano tuner’s
responsibility to
tune the
instrument
for them. But
they have their own difficulties; the
hammers that hit the string have to be coaxed not
to sound like percussion, and each
overlapping tone has to sound clear.
This
problem
of
getting
clear
texture
is
one
that
confronts
student
conductors:
they have to learn to know every note
of the music and how it should sound, and they
have to aim at controlling these sound
with fanatical but selfless authority.
Technique
is
of
no
use
unless
it
is
combined
with
musical
knowledge
and
understanding. Great artists are those
who are so thoroughly at home in the language
of music that they can enjoy performing
works written in any century.
01
音乐的语言
画家将已完成的作品挂在墙上，每个人都可以观赏到。
作
曲家写完了一部作品，得由
演奏者将其演奏出来，其他人才能
2
得以欣赏。因为作曲家是如此完全地依赖于职业歌手和职
业演
奏者，所以职业歌手和职业演奏者肩上的担子可谓不轻。
一名学音乐的学生要想成为
一名演奏者，需要经受长期的、严
格的训练，
就象一
名医科的学生要成为一名医生一样。
绝
大多
数的训练是技巧性的。
音乐家们控制肌肉的熟练程度，
必须达到与运动员或巴蕾舞
演
员相当的水平。
歌手们每天都练习吊嗓子，
因为如果不能有
效地控制肌肉的话，他们的声带将不能满足演唱的要求。
弦乐
器的演奏者练习的则是在左手的手指上下滑动的同时，用
右手
前后拉动琴弓
--
两个截然不同的动作。歌手和乐器演奏者必须使
所有的音符完全相同协
调。
钢琴家们则不用操
这份心，
因为每
个音符都已在那里等待着他们了。
给钢琴调音是调
音师的职责。
但调音师们也有他们的难
处：
他们必须耐心地调理敲击琴弦的音锤，不能让音锤发出的
声音象是打击
乐器，
而且每个交叠的音都必须要清晰。
如何得到
乐章清晰的纹理
是学生指挥们所面临的难题：他们
必须学会了
解音乐中的每一个音及其发音之道。
他们还
必须致力于以热忱
而又客观的权威去控制这些音符。
除非是和音乐方面的知识和悟
性结合起
来，单纯的技巧没有任何用处。
艺术家之所以伟大在于他们对音乐语言驾轻就熟，以致于
可以满怀喜悦地演出写于任何时代的作品。
3
Unit2: Schooling and Education
It is commonly believed in United
States that school is where people go to get an
education. Nevertheless, it has been
said that today children interrupt their education
to
go
to
school.
The
distinction
between
schooling
and
education
implied
by
this
remark is
important.
Education is
much more open-ended and all-inclusive than
schooling. Education
knows no bounds.
It
can take place anywhere, whether in
the shower or in
the job,
whether
in
a
kitchen
or
on
a
tractor.
It
includes
both
the
formal
learning
that
takes
place
in schools and the whole universe of informal
learning. The agents of education
can
range
from
a
revered
grandparent
to
the
people
debating
politics
on
the
radio,
from a child to a distinguished
scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain
predictability,
education quite often
produces surprises. A chance conversation with a
stranger may
lead a person to discover
how little is known of other religions. People are
engaged in
education
from
infancy
on.
Education,
then,
is
a
very
broad,
inclusive
term.
It
is
a
lifelong
process,
a
process
that
starts
long
before
the
start
of
school,
and
one
that
should
be an inte
gral part of one’s entire
life.
Schooling,
on
the
other
hand,
is
a
specific,
formalized
process,
whose
general
pattern varies
little from one setting to the next. Throughout a
country, children arrive
at school at
approximately the same time, take assigned seats,
are taught by an adult,
use similar
textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on. The
slices of reality that
are to be
learned, whether they are the alphabet or an
understanding of the working of
government, have usually been limited
by the boundaries of the subject being taught.
For
example,
high
school
students
know
that
there
not
likely
to
find
out
in
their
classes
the
truth
about
political
problems
in
their
communities
or
what
the
newest
filmmakers
are
experimenting
with.
There
are
definite
conditions
surrounding
the
formalized process of schooling.
02
上学与受教育
4
在美国，人们通常认为上学是为了受教育。
< br>而现在却有人
认为孩子们上学打断了他们
受教育的过程。
这种观念中的上学<
/p>
与受教育之间的区别非常重要。
与上学相比，教育更具
开放性，内容更广泛。
教育不受任
何限制。
它可以在任何场合下进行，在淋浴时，在工作
时，在
厨房里或拖拉机上。
它既包括在学校所受的正规教育，也包括一切非正规教育。
传
授知识的人可以是德高望重的老者
，可以是收音机里进行政
治辩论的人们，可以是小孩子，也可以是知名的科学家。
上学
读书多少有点可预见性，
而教育往往能带来意外的发现。
与
陌
生人的
一次随意谈话可能会使人认识到自己对其它宗教其实所
知甚少。
人们从幼时起就
开始受教育。
因此，
教育是一个内涵很丰
富的词，它自始至终伴随人的一生，早在人们上
学之前就开始
了。
<
/p>
教育应成为人生命中不可缺少的一部分。
然而，
< br>上学却是一
个特定的形
式化了的过程。
在不同场合下，
它的基本形式大同
小异。
在全国各地，孩子们几乎在同一
时刻
到达学校，坐在指
定的座位上，由一位成年人传授知识，使用大致相同的教材，做
作业，
考试等等。
他们所学的现实生活中的一些片断，如字母
表或政府的运作，往
往受到科目范
围的限制。
例如，高中生们
知道，
在课堂上他们没法弄清楚
他们社区里政治问题的真情，
也
5
不会了解到最新潮的电影制片人在做哪些尝试。
学校教育这一形
式化的过程是有特定的
限制的。
Unit3: The Definition of Price
Prices determine how resources are to
be used. They are also the means by which
products and services that are in
limited supply are rationed among buyers. The
price
system of the United States is a
complex network composed of the prices of all the
products
bought
and
sold
in
the
economy
as
well
as
those
of
a
myriad
of
services,
including
labor,
professional,
transportation,
and
public-utility
services.
The
interrelationships of
all these prices make up the “system” of prices.
The price of any
particular
product
or
service
is
linked
to
a
broad,
complicated
system
of
prices
in
which everything seems to depend more
or less upon everything else.
If
one
were
to
ask
a
group
of
randomly
selected
individuals
to
define
“price”,
many would reply
that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer
to the seller of a
product or service
or, in other words that price is the money values
of a product or
service as agreed upon
in a market transaction. This definition is, of
course, valid as
far as it goes. For a
complete understanding of a price in any
particular transaction,
much more than
the amount of money involved must be known. Both
the buyer and
the seller should
be familiar with
not
only the money amount, but
with
the amount
and quality of the product or service
to be exchanged, the time and place at which the
exchange will take place and payment
will be made, the form of money to be used,
the credit terms and discounts that
apply to the transaction, guarantees on the
product
or
service,
delivery
terms,
return
privileges,
and
other
factors.
In
other
words,
both
buyer
and
seller
should
be
fully
aware
of
all
the
factors
that
comprise
the
total
“package” being
exch
anged for the asked-for amount of
money in order that they may
evaluate a
given price.
03
价格
的定义
6
价格决定资源的使用方式。
价格也是
有限的产品与服务在
买方中的配给手段。
美国的价格系统是复杂的网状系统，
包括经济生活中一切产
品买卖的价格，也包括
名目繁多的各种服务，诸如劳动力、专
职人员、交通运输、公共事业等服务的价格。
所有这些价格的内在联系构成了价格系统。
< br>任何一种个别
产品或服务的价格都与这个庞大而复杂的系统密切相关，
而且或
多或少地受到系统中其它成份的制约。
如果
随机挑选一群人，
问
问他们如何定义
价格
，许多人
会回答价格就是根据卖方提供的
产品或服务，买方向其付出
的钱数。
换句话说，
价格就是市场交易中大家认同的产品或服务的货
币量。
该定义就其本身来说自有其道理。
但
要获得对价格在任何一桩交易中的完整认识，
就必须考虑
到大量
非货币
因素的
影响。
买卖双方不但要清楚交易中的钱
数，而且要非常熟悉交易物的质量和数量，交易的时间、地点，
采用哪种形式付款，<
/p>
有怎样的缓付和优惠，
对交易物的质量保证、
交货条款、退赔权利等等。也就是说，为了能估算索价，买卖双
< br>方必须通晓构成交易物价
格的通盘细节。
Unit4: Electricity
The
modern
age
is
an
age
of
electricity.
People
are
so
used
to
electric
lights,
radio,
televisions,
and
telephones
that
it
is
hard
to
imagine
what
life
would
be
like
without
them.
When
there
is
a
power
failure,
people
grope
about
in
flickering
7
candlelight, cars hesitate in the
streets because there are no traffic lights to
guide them,
and food spoils in silent
refrigerators.
Yet, people
began to understand how electricity works only a
little more than two
centuries ago.
Nature has
apparently been
experimenting in
this field
for million
of
years. Scientists are discovering more
and more that the living world may hold many
interesting secrets of electricity that
could benefit humanity.
All
living cell send out tiny pulses of electricity.
As the heart beats, it sends out
pulses
of
record;
they
form
an
electrocardiogram,
which
a
doctor
can
study
to
determine
how
well
the
heart
is
working.
The
brain,
too,
sends
out
brain
waves
of
electricity, which can be
recorded in an electroencephalogram. The electric
currents
generated
by
most
living
cells
are
extremely
small
–
often
so
small
that
sensitive
instruments are needed to record them.
But in some animals, certain muscle cells have
become so specialized as electrical
generators that they do not work as muscle cells
at
all.
When
large
numbers
of
these
cell
are
linked
together,
the
effects
can
be
astonishing.
The electric eel is an amazing storage
battery. It can seed a jolt of as much as
eight
hundred
volts
of
electricity
through
the
water
in
which
it
live.
(
An
electric
house current is only one hundred
twenty volts.) As many as four-fifths of all the
cells
in the electric eel’s body are
specialized for generating electricity, and the
strength of
the shock it can deliver
corresponds roughly to length of its body.
04
电
当今时代是电气时代。人们对电灯、收音机、电视和电话早<
/p>
已司空见惯以致很难想
象没有它们生活会变成什么样。
当停电时，人们在摇曳不定的烛光下暗中摸索；
因没有红
绿灯的指示，汽车在道路上
迟疑不前；冰箱也停止工作，导致食
物变质。人们只是在两个世纪前一点才开始了解电的
使用原理，
8
自然界却显然在这方面经历过了数百万年。
科学家不
断发现许
< br>多生物世界里可能有益于人类的关于电的有趣秘密。
所有生物细
< br>胞都会发出微小的
电脉冲。
当心脏跳动时，
把它发出的脉冲记录下来就成了心电图，
这
可让医生了解心脏的
工作状况。大脑也发出脑电波，这可在脑
电图上记录下来。
许多生物细胞发出的电流都是
极微小
的，小到要用灵敏仪
器才能记录和测量。
但一些动物的某些肌肉细胞能转化成一个
个发电机，以致完全失去肌肉细胞的功能。
这种细胞大量地连接在一起时产生的效果将是
非常令人吃
惊的。电鳗就是一种令人惊异的蓄电池。
它可以在水中发出相
当于
800
伏特电压电流
(
家庭用户的电压只有
120
伏特
)
。
<
/p>
在
电鳗的身体里，多至五分之四的细胞都专门用
< br>
来发电，而且发
出的电流的强度大约和它身体的长度成
正比。
Unit5: The
Beginning of Drama
There are many
theories about the beginning of drama in ancient
Greece. The on
most widely accepted
today is based on the assumption that drama
evolved from ritual.
The argument for
this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human
beings viewed
the natural forces of the
world-even the seasonal changes-as unpredictable,
and they
sought
through
various
means
to
control
these
unknown
and
feared
powers.
Those
measures which
appeared to bring the desired results were then
retained and repeated
until
they
hardened
into
fixed
rituals.
Eventually
stories
arose
which
explained
or
veiled the mysteries of
the rites. As time passed some rituals were
abandoned, but the
stories, later
called myths, persisted and provided material for
art and drama.
9
Those
who
believe
that
drama
evolved
out
of
ritual
also
argue
that
those
rites
contained the seed of
theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes
were almost
always
used,
Furthermore,
a
suitable
site
had
to
be
provided
for
performances
and
when
the
entire
community
did
not
participate,
a
clear
division
was
usually
made
between the
In
addition,
there were
performers,
and,
since
considerable
importance
was
attached
to
avoiding
mistakes
in
the
enactment
of
rites,
religious
leaders
usually
assumed
that
task.
Wearing
masks
and
costumes, they often impersonated other
people, animals, or supernatural beings, and
mimed the desired effect-success in
hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of
the
Sun-as an actor might. Eventually
such dramatic representations were separated from
religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's
origin from the human interest in storytelling.
According
to
this
vies
tales
(about
the
hunt,
war,
or
other
feats)
are
gradually
elaborated,
at
first
through
the
use
of
impersonation,
action,
and
dialogue
by
a
narrator and then through
the assumption of each of the roles by a different
person. A
closely related theory traces
theater to those dances that are primarily
rhythmical and
gymnastic or that are
imitations of animal movements and sounds.
05
戏剧的起源
关于古希腊戏剧的起源存在着多种理论，
其中一个最普遍为
人接受的理论
假设认为戏剧从仪式演化而来。
这个
观点是这样进行论证的：
一开始，
人类把世界上的自
然
力量，甚至季节的变化都看成是不可预料的。
他们试图通过各
种方式去控制这些未
知的、令人恐惧的力量。
那些似乎带来了
满意结果的手段就被保留下来并且重复直到这些手段固
化
为不
变的仪式，最后产生了能够解释或者掩盖这些仪式神秘性的故
事。
10
随着时间的推移，
一些仪式被废弃了
，但这些后来被称作
神话的故事流传下来并且为艺术和戏剧提供了素材。
认为戏剧从仪式演化而来的人们还认为那些仪式包含了戏
剧的基本因素，因为音乐、舞蹈、
面具和服装几乎经常被
使用，
而且，
必须为演出提供一个合适的地点；
如果不是整个社区共
同
参加
演出，经常在
演出区
< br>和
观众席
之间划分出明显的分界。
另外，仪式中还有演员，
而且宗教领
袖通常承担演出任务，因
为在仪式的执行中避免错误的发生被认为有相当大的重要性；<
/p>
他
们经常带着面具，
穿着服装象演员那样
扮演其它人、
动物或超自
然的生灵，用动作
来表演以达到所需要的效果，比如打猎的成
功或战斗的胜
利、将至的雨、太阳的复活。
最
<
/p>
后这些戏剧性的
表演从宗教活动中分离了出来。
< br>
另一个追溯戏剧起源的理论认为它来自人
们对叙述故事的
兴趣。
根据这个观点，
故事
(
关于
狩猎、
战争或者其它伟绩
)
是逐
渐丰富起
来的。
首先通过一个讲解人来运用模仿、
表演和对话，
然后再由不
同的人扮演各自的角色；
另一个与之紧密相
关的理论将戏剧的起
源追溯至舞蹈，这些舞蹈大体上是有节奏感的和体操
式的那一
类，或者是对动物动作和声音的模仿。
Unit6: Television
Television
-----the
most
pervasive
and
persuasive
of
modern
technologies,
11
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