50篇优美英文短文背诵

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。

教育应成为人生命中不可缺少的一部分。然而，

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，

10

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，

< br>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。

11

Unit3:The Defini tion of Price(

价格的定义

)

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

12

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

exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in

order that they may evaluate a given price.

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

13

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。

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

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，

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，

买卖双方必须通晓

构成交易物价

格的通盘细节。

14

U nit4:Electricity(

电

)

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

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

15

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.

当今时代是电气时代。

人们对电灯、 收音机、

电视和电话早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

16

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，

自然界却显然在这方面经历过了数百万年。