2023年新概念必背.doc

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write.But there are some parts of the world where even now people cannot write. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas-legends handed down from one generation of story-tellers to another. These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the firstmodern men came from.Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away. Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even thebones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.Lesson 2 Spare that spider Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human raceInsects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animalsWe owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spidersMoreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to themOne can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in a grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitchSpiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insectsIt is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a dayIt has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.Lesson 3 Matterhorn man Modern alpinists try to climb mountains by a route which will give them good sport, and the more difficult it is, the more highly it is regardedIn the pioneering days, however, this was not the case at allThe early climbers were looking for the easiest way to the top, because the summit was the prize they sought, especially if it had never been attained beforeIt is true that during their explorations they often faced difficulties and dangers of the most perilous nature, equipped in a manner which would make a modern climber shudder at the thought, but they did not go out of their way to court such excitementThey had a single aim, a solitary goal-the top!It is hard for us to realize nowadays how difficult it was for the pioneersExcept for one or two places such as Zermatt and Chamonix, which had rapidly become popular, Alpine villages tended to be impoverished settlements cut off from civilization by the high mountainsSuch inns as there were generally dirty and flea-ridden; the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread often twelve months old, all washed down with coarse wineOften a valley boasted no inn at all, and climbers found shelter wherever they could-sometimes with the local priest (who was usually as poor as his parishioners), sometimes with shepherds or cheese-makersInvariably the background was the same: dirt and poverty, and very uncomfortableFor men accustomed to eating seven-course dinners and sleeping between fine linen sheets at home, the change to the Alps must have been very hard indeedLesson 6 The sporting spiritI am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefieldEven if one didnt know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it fromgeneral principles.Nearly all the sports practiced nowadays are competitiveYou play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to winOn the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: but as soon as the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are arousedAnyone who has played even in a school football match knows thisAt the international level, sport is frankly mimic warfareBut the significant thing is not the behavior of the players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe - at any rate for short periods - that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.Lesson 15 Secrecy in industryTwo factors weigh heavily against the effectiveness of scientific research in industry. One is the general atmosphere of secrecy in which it is carried out, the other the lack of freedom of the individual research worker. In so far as any inquiry is a secret one, it naturally limits all those engaged in carrying it out from effective contact with their fellow scientists either in other countries or in universities, or even, often enough, in other departments of the same firm. The degree of secrecy naturally varies considerably. Some of the bigger firms are engaged in researches which are of such general and fundamental nature that it is a positive advantage to them not to keep them secret. Yet a great many processes depending on such research are sought for with complete secrecy until the stage at which patents can be taken out. Even more processes are never patented at all but kept as secret processes. This applies particularly to chemical industries, where chance discoveries play a much larger part than they do in physical and mechanical industries. Sometimes the secrecy goes to such an extent that the whole nature of the research cannot be mentioned. Many firms, for instance, have great difficulty in obtaining technical or scientific books from libraries because they are unwilling to have their names entered as having taken out such and such a book for fear the agents of other firms should be able to trace the kind of research they are likely to be undertaking.Lesson 16 The modern city In the organization of industrial life the influence of the factory upon the physiological and mental state of the workers has been completely neglectedModern industry is based on the conception of the maximum production at lowest cost, in order that an individual or a group of individuals may earn as much money as possibleIt has expanded without any idea of the true nature of the human beings who run the machines, and without giving any consideration to the effects produced on the individuals and on their descendants by the artificial mode of existence imposed by the factoryThe great cities have been built with no regard for us|The shape and dimensions of the skyscrapers depend entirely on the necessity of obtaining the maximum income per square foot of ground, and of offering to the tenants offices and apartments that please themThis caused the construction of gigantic buildings where too large masses of human beings are crowded togetherCivilized men like such a way of livingWhile they enjoy the comfort and banal luxury of their dwelling, they do not realize that they are deprived of the necessities of lifeThe modern city consists of monstrous edifices and of dark, narrow streets full of petrol fumes and toxic gases, torn by the noise of the taxi-cabs, lorries and buses, and thronged ceaselessly by great crowds|Obviously, it has not been planned for the good of its inhabitants.Lesson 22 Knowledge and progress Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifestAlthough mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge| Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speechWith the invention of writing, a great advance was made,for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also storedLibraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound-interest law,which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printingAll this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science, the tempo was suddenly raisedThen knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic planThe trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent| Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical accountWhat is calledmodern civilizationis not the result of a balanced development of all mans nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical lifeThe problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evilIt is now being used indifferently for bothCould any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly whimsical than that of gunners using science to shatter mens bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power,continues.|Lesson 32 Galileo reborn 伽利略旳复生In his own lifetime Galileo was the centre of violent controversy; but the scientific dust has long since settled, and today we can see even his famous clash with the Inquisition in something like its proper perspective. But, in contrast, it is only in modern times that Galileo has become a problem child for historians of science.The old view of Galileo was delightfully uncomplicated. He was, above all, a man who experimented: who despised the prejudices and book learning of the Aristotelians, who put his questions to nature instead of to the ancients, and who drew his conclusions fearlessly. He had been the first to turn a telescope to the sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow Aristotle and Ptolemy together. He was the man who climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped various weights from the top, who rolled balls down inclined planes, and then generalized the results of his many experiments into the famous law of free fall.But a closer study of the evidence, supported by a deeper sense of the period, and particularly by a new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents in the scientific revolution, has profoundly modified this view of Galileo. Today, although the old Galileo lives on in many popular writings, among historians of science a new and more sophisticated picture has emerged. At the same time our sympathy for Galileos opponents has grown somewhat. His telescopic observations are justly immortal; they aroused great interest at the time, they had important theoretical consequences, and they provided a striking demonstration of the potentialities hidden in instruments and apparatus. But can we blame those who looked and failed to see what Galileo saw, if we remember that to use a telescope at the limit of its powers calls for long experience and intimate familiarity with ones instrument? Was the philosopher who refused to look through Galileos telescope more culpable than those who alleged that the spiral nebulae observed with Lord Rosses great telescope in the eighteen-forties were scratches left by the grinder? We can perhaps forgive those who said the moons of Jupiter were produced by Galileos spyglass if we recall that in his day, as for centuries before, curved glass was the popular contrivance for producing not truth but illusion, untruth; and if a single curved glass would distort nature, how much more would a pair of them?Lesson 33 Education Education is one of the key words of our time. A man without an education, many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of adverse circumstances, deprived of one of the greatest twentieth-century opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states invest in institutions of learning to get back interest in the form of a large group of enlightened young men and women who are potential leaders. Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, punctuated by text-books-those purchasable wells of wisdom-what would civilization be like without its benefits?So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and births-but our spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on facts and figures and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and on the capacity of a man to get along with his fellow-citizens. If our educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we would have the most democratic form of college imaginable. Among tribal people all knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all; it is taught to every member of the tribe so that in this respect everybody is equally equipped for life.It is the ideal condition of the equal start which only our most progressive forms of modern education try to regain. In primitive cultures the obligation to seek and to receive the traditional instruction is binding to all. There are no illiterates-if the term can be applied to peoples without a script-while our own compulsory school attendance became law in Germany in 1642, in France in 1806, and in England in 1876, and is still non-existent in a number of civilized nations. This shows how long it was before we deemed it necessary to make sure that all our children could share in the knowledge accumu