Unit  7

Task  1

【答案】

1) Because he wrote an astonishing number of books.

2) Mankind would have to create a world state.

3) No.

4) Cities were destroyed by bombs dropped from aeroplanes.

5) Any two of the following: The War in the Air, The First Men in the Moon, The Time Machine, and The Invisible Man.

6) Events forecast in Well’s books might come true.

【原文】

H. G. Wells was born in 1866. His energy must have been enormous, for he wrote an astonishing number of books. Many of the later ones were concerned with his idea that mankind would have to create a world state, if it was not to end up by destroying itself.

     There we're novels like Kipps, Love and Mr. Lewisham and The History of Mr. Polly. The best of these are now recognized as classics. But in addition, this incredible man somehow found the time and inspiration to write the stories forecasting future events that entitle him to be known as the father of science fiction.

     When The War in the Air appeared in 1908, how many people could have foreseen that within thirty years great cities were going to be destroyed by bombs dropped from aeroplanes? The First Men in the Moon was published in 1901. How many of those who read it realized that men really were going to walk on the moon within their lifetime?

     And what about The Time Machine and The Invisible Man? Are we going to wake up one morning and find that here too Wells was forecasting events which were going to come true?

Task  2

【答案】

A.

1) b  2) c  3) c  4) a

B.

1) tall; narrow; tousled  2) surveyed; half-closed  3) taking a long stride

4) capable; flexible; still life  5) faded; frayed 

6) tilted his head; smiled; walked forward; with a flourish

【原文】

If you came into his studio in the evening as the sun was setting you could see him. You would notice how the soft light coming through the long windows fell on his left profile as he stood in front of his easel. He was tall; his shoulders were narrow; his head was large with an abundance of dark, tousled hair.

    He surveyed the canvas in front of him and half-closed his eyes. His cheek bones were high and prominent, and accentuated the line of the jaw. This in turn set off his long neck. He stepped back, taking a long stride, and remained with one foot in front of the other. He wore sandals without socks and you could see that a big toe had developed a blister where a leather strap cut across it. He had short, strong, capable fingers and he used his broad, flexible thumb to smooth some of the paint on the still life he was busy finishing. The jeans he wore were faded and frayed; paint rags hung from each pocket. His shirt was a checked one of many colors, mainly purple, blue and yellow. It contrasted peculiarly with the ephemeral colors on the canvas. He tilted his head to one side, smiled, walked forward and brought his brush slowly towards the bottom of the canvas, and with a flourish signed his name.

Task  3

【答案】

A.

1) F  2) T   3) F  4) F  5) F  6) T  7) F  8) T

B.

1) dramatic sunsets and sunrises  2) 1930s; 1840s; impressionistic 

3) reds; oranges; 1820

【原文】

Joseph Turner (1775—1851) is one of the two greatest English landscape painters of his age. He is especially noted for his imaginative water colours and oil paintings, which often show dramatic sunsets and sunrises, done in a brilliant kaleidoscope of colours. His painting Burning of the Houses of Parliament appears in colour in the Painting article. During the 1830s and 1840s, the method he used became more and more impressionistic. His work influenced the impressionist movement in France led by Claude Monet in the 1870s. Turner is also known for his landscape drawings, especially the book of drawings called Liber Studiorum, which he produced between 1807 and 1819.

     Turner was influenced at first by Rembrandt and later by Claude. He began to use bright colours in his paintings, especially the reds and oranges for which he is known, after about 1820. Some of his most famous paintings are Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus, Bay of Baiae, and View of Orvieto.

     Turner was born in London, the son of a barber. He was' something of a boy genius, and exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of 15. He traveled widely, first in England and Scotland, and after 1800 in France, Italy, and Germany. Turner drew and painted wherever he went, working incessantly and producing hundreds of paintings and thousands of drawings, many of which he left to the nation. During his lifetime Turner was said to be a miser, and towards the end of his life, he became slovenly, solitary, and secretive. Many people did not like his work until John Ruskin championed him in 1843, but Turner died wealthy and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. He left his money to a charity for poor English artists.

Task  4

【答案】

1) A natural curiosity./A good interviewer is one who likes meeting people and wants to find out about them.

2) A curious kind of affinity with people, and an ability to get on will with people.

3) Because television depends a lot on the director getting the right shot.

4) By research./By knowing more about the guest than they’ve forgotten about themselves.

5) All./Every ounce of research.

6) Because Mitchum rarely said anything.

7) Because very often the interviewees spin off into areas that the interviewer has never thought about and sometimes it’s worth pursing.

8) A traffic cop.

9) Talent, ambition and energy.

【原文】

Interviewer: With all your experience of interviewing, Michael, how can you tell if somebody is going to make a good interviewer?

   Michael: Oh, I say, what a question! I've never been asked that before. I think that the prerequisite obviously is curiosity. I think that's a natural one, not an assumed one. I think the people who have done my job, and the graveyard of the BBC is littered with them, their tombstones are there, you know; who failed, have been because basically they've not been journalists. My training was in journalism. I've been 26 years a journalist and, to be a journalist argues that you like meeting people to start with, and also you want to find out about them. So that's the prerequisite. After that, I think there's something else comes into it, into play, and I think again, most successful journalists have it: It's a curious kind of affinity with people; it's an ability to get on with people; it's a kind of body warmth, if you like. If you knew the secret of it and could bottle it and sell it, you'd make a fortune.

Interviewer: When you've done an interview yourself, how do you feel whether it's been a good interview or not a good interview?

   Michael: I can never really tell on air. I have to watch it back, because television depends so much on your director getting the right shot, the right reaction you can't--it's amazing. Sometimes I think "Oh, that's a boring interview" and just because of the way my director shot it, and shot reaction he's composed a picture that's made it far more interesting than it actually was.

Interviewer: How do you bring out the best in people, because you always seem to manage to, not only relax them, but somehow get right into the depths of them.

   Michael: By research. By knowing, when you go into a television studio, more about the guest in front of you than they've forgotten about themselves. And, I mean that's pure research. I mean, you probably use, in a 20 minute interview; I probably use, oh, a 20th of the research material that I've absorbed, but that's what you've got to do. I mean I once interviewed Robert Mitchum for 75 minutes and the longest reply I got from him was "Yes." And that's the only time I've used every ounce of research and every question that I've ever thought of, and a few that I hadn't thought of as well. But that really is the answer — it's research. When people say to you, you know, "Oh you go out and wing it", I mean that's nonsense. If anybody ever tries to tell you that as an interviewer just starting, that you wing it, there's no such thing. It's all preparation — it's knowing exactly what you're going to do at any given point and knowing what you want from the person.

Interviewer: And does that include sticking to written questions or do you deviate?

   Michael: No, I mean what you do is you have an aide memoire. I have. My list of questions aren't questions as such — they're areas that I block out, and indeed, I can't remember, I can't recall, apart from the foresaid Mr. Mitchum experience, when I've ever stuck to that at all. Because, quite often you'll find that they spin off into areas that you've not really thought about and perhaps it's worth pursuing sometimes. The job is very much like, actually, a traffic cop — you're like you're on point duty and you're, you know when you're directing the flow of traffic, well, you're directing the flow of conversation, that's basically what you're doing, when you're doing a talk show, in my view.

Interviewer: Have you got a last word of encouragement for any young people setting out on what they'd like to be a career as an interviewer?

  Michael: I envy them, I mean, I really do. I mean I'd go back and do it all again. I think it's the most perfect job for any young person who's got talent and ambition and energy. And the nice thing about it is that the proportion of talent is indeed only 5 percent. The other 95 percent is energy and no examinations to pass. I'd love to do it over again.

Task  5

【答案】

A.

Wangari Maathai
Award:	Nobel Peace Prize (the twelfth woman/ the first African woman since 1901 to win the prize)
Comments from the Nobel Committee:	Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment.
Major reason for receiving the award:	Green belt movement
Personal information:
Nationality:	Kenyan
Age:	64
Education:	Studied in the United States and Kenya Believed to have been the first woman in East and central Africa to earn a doctorate degree
Career:	Was a professor of animal science at the University of Nairobi Is assistant minister of environment, natural resources an

B.

1997, plant trees all over Africa, thirty million, seeds nurseries, communities, planting, taking care of the trees, survives, fuel

【原文】

Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai says poor women can fight poverty and help the environment by planting trees. In December, she will receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to save the forests of Africa.

Wangari Maathai is the twelfth woman since nineteen oh one to win the prize. Last year the Norwegian Nobel Committee also recognized a woman, Shirin Ebadi of Iran. She is a lawyer who has fought for human rights for women.

But this is the first time the peace prize will go to an African woman. It is also the first time someone within the environmental movement has been recognized at such a high level. The Nobel  Committee said: "Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment."

In 1977, Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt Movement. The goal is to plant trees all over Africa, to replace those cut down over the years. Trees are the main source of cooking fuel. Trees also protect wildlife. And they keep nutrients in the soil and help prevent flooding.

Today the program operates in a number of countries. A reported thirty million trees have been planted.

Young trees are grown from seeds at thousands of nurseries. The Green Belt Movement gives these young trees to communities. Locally trained people advise women farmers about planting and taking care of the trees. The movement pays farmers for every tree that survives. Later the women can use some of the trees for fuel.

Professor Maathai is sixty-four years old. She studied in the United States and Kenya. She is believed to have been the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She became a professor of animal science at the University of Nairobi. But her activism angered the former government in Kenya. She was beaten and arrested.

Now, she is assistant minister of environment, natural resources and wildlife.

But she does not speak out only about the environment. In August, she called the AIDS virus a biological weapon to control black people. Later, she said her comments were meant to get people to ask questions and not think of AIDS as a "curse from God."

Wangari Maathai will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December tenth. She will also receive almost one point four million dollars in prize money.

 

Task  6

【答案】

I.

A. Norway

B. the United States

II.

A. a lack of balance; inflation; recession

B. low interest rates; increased government spending; higher interest rates

C. low employment; high inflation

D. high employment; low inflation; the time consistency problem

Ⅲ.

A. business cycles

B. new technology

C. market corrections

D. an increase in oil price

【原文】

The winners of the Nobel prize in economics this year are Finn Kydland of Norway and Edward Prescott of the United States.

Mister Prescott is an adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also an Arizona State University professor. Mister Kydland is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The prize recognizes their work together on two studies. The first was published in nineteen seventy-seven.

Before the 1970s, economic problems were seen mainly in terms of a lack of balance. Too much demand caused inflation. Too much supply caused a recession.

Governments would take steps aggressively to re-balance supply and demand. Low interest rates and increased government spending would expand growth and employment. Then, if prices went up too much, higher interest rates would ease inflation.

But in the 70s, many nations experienced both low employment and high inflation at the same time. This was called stagflation. And no one could explain it.

Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott showed that stagflation resulted when policymakers did not do as they promised. Most governments say they want high employment and low inflation. But, over time, events can cause them not to follow their stated economic policy to support these goals. This is called the time consistency problem.

The two economists published another study in nineteen eighty-two. They developed ways to explain business cycles, times of increase or decrease in economic activity. They showed how new technology creates periods of economic growth and productivity.

Markets then make corrections which slow the growth. Wages change. Investments change. People buy more or less of things. The two economists showed how activities at this level govern an economy. They also showed how a shock like an increase in oil prices can affect business cycles.

Today, their work influences central bank officials and policymakers around the world.

Task  7

【答案】

A.

1) It was originally released in local newspaper in serial form.

2) The two short, little sections are easily doable, and then you get hooked on the story and wonder what’s happening next.

3) Through mail and twice a month.

4) Because the book opens on Christmas Eve and it has a strong message about family.

5) 5,600

B.

1) 1860; London; in suspense

2) adventures; love; betrayal; a poor orphan

3) any likeness of either of them; photograph; their tombstones

4) Industrial Revolution; altering daily life

5) profound change; fundamental values

【原文】

Host: In December, 1860, the first serialized part of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations hit the streets of London. Every week, readers were kept in suspense waiting for the next installment. Over the next few months, Stanford University will let readers experience Great Expectations the way Victorians did.

Reporter: It's Thursday evening and the Stevens' family has settled into the living room to take turns reading the latest weekly installment of Great Expectations. Peter and Rosemary Stevens thought that the installment plan was a terrific way to read Great Expectations with their seven- and eight-year-old daughters.

Mrs. Stevens: You have two short, little sections that are easily doable, and where if it's a huge book, you'd say, "How am I going to approach this?" where if it's little pieces, say, "Oh, okay. I can do this." And then you get hooked on the story and think, "Well, what's happening next?"

    Reporter: It's a little like a very good soap opera, says Rosemary. Most of Dickens' novels — Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations — were released in serial form. Stanford University Professor Linda Paulson wanted to recreate that experience.

Prof. Paulson: Imagine sitting there in 1860, this brand-new Dickens' novel. You know him as a writer. You respect him. He's wonderful. He's great fun. And you don't know what he's got in his mind.

    Reporter: Dickens' works were originally released in local newspapers. Stanford made copies of the installments and sends them to readers through the mail twice a month. The university kicked off the serial with a public reading by local actor Marco Barricelli.

 Mr. Barricelli: My father's family name, being Pirrip, and my Christian name, Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip and came to be called Pip.

    Reporter: For those who aren't familiar with Great Expectations, it is the story of Pip, who writes as an adult looking back on his youth. He faces adventures, love and betrayal, too. Like many Dickens' characters, Pip is born a poor orphan.

 Mr. Barricelli: As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them, for their days were long before the days of photographs, my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones.

    Reporter: Paulson says Great Expectations was a good choice for this time of year because it opens on Christmas Eve and it has a strong message about family.

Prof. Paulson: The idea of what constitutes a family, which is not necessarily the biological family.

    Reporter: Dickens was writing during the Industrial Revolution, says Paulson, at a moment when technology was altering daily life.

Prof. Paulson: He was looking at a world that was in profound change and reminding people that there were some fundamental values that they needed always to remember, and I think that's not far off from what we are trying to remind ourselves of now.

    Reporter: More than 500 people showed up for the public reading, and 5,600 have signed up to get the serial installments. For many, like Alison Price, it is an opportunity to get closer to  friends and family.

   Ms. Price: I'm doing it with my parents, who live in Southern California, and my friend Miriam and my husband. So we're sort of doing it together.

    Reporter: Although Price and everyone else could just go out and buy a copy of Great Expectations, most seem to enjoy waiting expectantly for the next episode to arrive in the mail.

Task  8

【答案】

the ability to laugh; luxury; a unifying force; disagree; ideological factions; political camps; a sense of humour; a universal appeal; a correct sense of values; taking ourselves too seriously; tragedy; comedy; irony; satire; redress the balance; arrogant politicians; absurdity; powerful; laughter; happiness; uniquely human; key

【原文】

Biologically, there is only one quality which distinguishes us from animals: the ability to laugh. In a universe which appears to be utterly devoid of humor, we enjoy this supreme luxury. And it is a luxury, for unlike any other bodily process, laughter does not seem to serve a biologically useful purpose. In a divide world, laughter is a unifying force. Human beings oppose each other on a great many issues. Nations may disagree about systems of government and human relations may be plagued by ideological factions and political camps, but we all share the ability to laugh. And laughter, in turn, depends on that most complex and subtle of all human qualities: a sense of humor. Certain comic stereotypes have a universal appeal. This can best be seen from the world-wide popularity of Charlie Chaplin’s early films. The little man at odds with society never fails to amuse no matter which country we come from. As that great commentator on human affairs, Dr. Samuel Johnson, once remarked, ‘Men have been wise in very different modes; but they have always laughed in the same way.’

A sense of humor may take various forms and laughter may be anything from a refined tingle to an earth quaking roar, but the effect is always the same. Humor helps us to maintain a correct sense of values. It is the one quality which political fanatics appear to lack. If we can see the funny side, we never make the mistake of taking ourselves too seriously. We are always reminded that tragedy is not really far removed from comedy, so we never get a lopsided view of things.

This is one of the chief functions of satire and irony. Human pain and suffering are so grim; we hover so often on the brink of war; political realities are usually enough to plunge us into total despair. In such circumstances, cartoons and satirical accounts of somber political events redress the balance. They take the wind out of pompous and arrogant politicians who have lost their sense of proportion. They enable us to see that many of our most profound actions are merely comic or absurd. We laugh when a great satirist like Swift writes about war in Gulliver’s Travels. The Lilliputians and their neighbors attack each other because they can’t agree which end to break an egg. We laugh because we meant to laugh; but we are meant to weep too. It is too powerful a weapon to be allowed to flourish.

The sense of humor must be singled out as man’s most important quality because it is associated with laughter. And laughter, in turn, is associated with happiness. Courage, determination, initiative — these are qualities we share with other forms of life. But the sense of humor is uniquely human. If happiness is one of the great goals of life, then it is the sense of humor that provides the key.

Task  9

【答案】

A.

1) At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

2) The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

3) Sudies for Leonardo's most famous paintings, and the results of new research into such subjects as Leonardo's patrons, his teachers, and the work of his pupils.

4) Because they are particularly sensitive to light and temperature.

5) Because drawings are difficult to see in a museum.

B.

1) T

2) F

3) T

4) F

5) T

C.

1) Master Draftsman; artistic apprenticeship; 1470s; scientist; inventor; France;1519

2) artist; scientist; theorist; Renaissance Man

3) revealing; rationalizing; the mysteries of the world; the great depths of human emotion; convincing

4) magical sense; draws; creates; greatest personalities

5) reassuring; cajoling; security; insurance; the general public; knowledge

【原文】

The most comprehensive collection of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci ever assembled in the United States, is on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The exhibition is taken from major collections from around the world, and features many pieces not seen in public since the 1930s.

Even for seasoned art historian and curator Carmen Bambach, who put together the exhibition of nearly 120 drawings, seeing so many works by Leonardo da Vinci in one place is a moving experience. "It is possibly the most emotional time in my entire life, that I am likely to have. To think about these works you will see on the walls, or that you have already seen on the walls, that normally live in dark, black boxes. To see them all together here, so many of them, is a very, very emotional thing," she said.

Leonardo da Vinci — Master Draftsman follows da Vinci's entire career, from his artistic apprenticeship in Florence, Italy in the 1470s, to his highly productive years as a scientist and an inventor in Milan, through to his return to Florence in the beginning of the 16th century, and death in France in 1519.

Ms. Bambach said the drawings in the exhibition provide a rare opportunity to confront the diverse talents that made Leonardo da Vinci, artist, scientist, engineer, theorist, teacher, the original "Renaissance Man."

"He very much believed in revealing, and in the process of revealing, rationalizing. At the same time, he was deeply and humbly aware of the mysteries of the world, the mysteries of human life. He talks a great deal about that. The mysteries of life, the great depths of human emotion as a kind of shaper of physical gesture. That is why his figures are so deeply convincing."

Although Leonardo da Vinci is perhaps best known for paintings such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, very few paintings by the master exist today — 15 at most, whereas there are 4,000 pages of his drawings and notes in various collections throughout the world.

The one painting in the exhibition, the unfinished St. Jerome Praying in the Wilderness, has the imprint of the artist's fingers in the upper left corner. Metropolitan Museum Director Philipe de Montebello says tiny details like this are what make the Master Draftsman exhibition so compelling.

"You get that magical sense that you are looking over the shoulder of the artist as he draws and creates. It brings you in touch with one of the greatest personalities in the world on such a close basis that it is deeply moving," Mr. de Montebello said.

The exhibition includes studies for Leonardo's most famous paintings, Virgin and Child with St. Anne, The Last Supper, Adoration of the Magi, as well as a recently discovered, two-sided sketch of a Hercules statue, possibly meant to compete with Michaelangelo's David.

Interwoven in the exhibition are the results of copious new research into such subjects as Leonardo da Vinci's patrons, his teachers, and the work of his pupils.

Mr. Montebello said the new research helped convince some reluctant lenders to temporarily part with their da Vinci treasures. "There is no question that it took a lot of reassuring and cajoling, in terms of security and insurance and the like, but I think ultimately what prevailed was the seriousness of the project. The new research, the scholarship, the fact that the exhibition will make not only a contribution to the general public, but a contribution to knowledge," he said.

Some art experts have questioned the wisdom of transporting and showing such valuable work because of its fragility. The old work is particularly sensitive to light and temperature. But Francoise Viatte, chief curator of drawings at the Musee de Louvre in Paris, says it is a risk worth taking.

"If we never attempt this kind of thing, very few people will see the works of art in the world. I think part of the job of the museum is to make exhibitions between them in partnerships. Especially for drawings. Because Drawings are difficult to see in a museum. Drawings are a special section in a museum. You have to make a special request and get authorization to see them. So it is very important to make a big exhibition like Leonardo," Ms. Viatte said.

21 of the drawings in the exhibition come from the Louvre. Other major contributions come from museums and private collections in the Netherlands, Portugal, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Austria, and the United States. The Royal Library of Windsor Castle in England lent 31 drawings.

The exhibition will travel to the Louvre later this year.

Task 10

Thomas Edison was one of ten said to be the greatest genius of his age. There are only a few men in all of the history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius.“ There is no such thing as genius,” Edison said. He said that what people called genius was mostly hard work.
    But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. Nature, he often said, is full of secrets. He tried to understand them; then, he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.
    Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.