1、Unit one:Born to Surfaccess place that as win lead still virtual even response annually to concern across exactly simply between they bevauseThe web magazine From the Window contains poetry and literature from well-know writers across the global.There are thoughtful articles analyzing the state of t
2、he world we live in.There is(1)_a piece from the Secretary General of the United States,Kofi Annan.It may come(2)_some surprise to find out(3)_ the editor of the magazine is a 12-year-old girl,Joy Nightingale.网络杂志世界之窗收录了世界各地知名作家的诗篇和文学作品。那些富有思想的文章分析了我们所居住的世界。甚至有一篇是联合国秘书长安南所作。令人惊奇的是,这本杂志的编辑时一个 12 岁的小姑
3、娘,乔?南丁格尔。From the window(4)_Joy Nightingale the prize in the 1999 childnet internationaland Cable and Wireless awards.These are given(5)_ for the best use of the Internet(6)_ and for young people.And(7)_ highlight one of the most welcoming aspects of the(8)_world.Children have taken to the Internet
4、as though they are born surfing.世界之窗使乔?南丁格尔赢得了 1999 年国际儿童网络奖一等奖。这个奖是颁给每年利用网络最好的年轻人的。并且,他们使网络空间里最受欢迎的方面更加突出。孩子们已经养成了上网的习惯,就像他们天生会网上冲浪一样。Perhaps this is(9)_ adults have had to change their understanding of technologywhile children(10)_ accept it as natural.Whatever the reason,children can be found bui
5、lding websites an E-mailing friends(11)_ the world while adults are(12)_ asking:”Tell me again-where(13)_ is cyberspace?”也许,当成年人不得不改变他们对技术的理解时,孩子们却很自然的接受了它。不管什么原因,孩子们通过网络能够发现正在建设的网站和电子邮件朋友,儿大人们却还在问:“告诉我,网络空间到底在哪?”Of course there is growing(14)_ about the fact that Children can travel far away from p
6、arental supervision in cyberspace.In(15)_,many parents have installed software packages which pervert(16)_ to violent or pornographic websites.Childnet is taking a more positive line.The website is a gateway(17)_ a world of education and entertainment.当然,在网络空间里,孩子们远离父母监管的事实收到日趋的关注。对此,很多家长都已安装了阻止孩子们进
7、入暴力和色情网站的软件包。儿童网在这一方面也做了积极的努力。网络开启了通往教育和娱乐世界的一扇大门。The rapid growth in Internet culture has(18)_ analysts to speculate that society will soon be divided(19)_ the“information rich”and“information poor”.For Childnet it is especially important hat children at the margins of society through poverty or di
8、sability have the chance to take their(20)_ as equal citizens in the virtual world.网络文化的迅速发展已经致使分析家做出推测:社会很快会被分成“信息富有”和“信息贫乏”两个部分。在虚拟世界里,因贫穷和伤残而处在社会边缘的孩子们有机会取得和正常人平等的地位,这一点对儿童网站来说尤其重要。Unit 2Status like own schedule view afford face almost necessarily discipline longer means reality become prove even
9、 lower grow take untilWhen you can e-mail your colleagues from the comfort of your garden,there is no need to suffer an uncomfortable journey just to speak to them.If you need an important document,it can be faxed via satellite to your mobile phone,and(1)_on a laptop computer.You can receive the doc
10、ument(2)_ immediately,(3)_ from another continent.当你在舒适的花园中给同事发邮件时,就不必仅仅为了告诉他们而去忍受劳顿的旅程了。如果你需要一份重要文件,它可以通过卫星信号传真到你手机上,然后你就可以在笔记本电脑上看见它。即使在大洋彼岸,你也能立刻收到文件。Since the price of technology gets(4)_ every day,ownership of the(5)_s of production becomes a(6)_.Having bought the computer,mobile phone,fax mach
11、ine,Internet connection and printer that are their only material tools,telecommuters(7)_ true electric peasants.随着科技产品间隔的日趋降低,拥有这些电子产品已成为现实。远程工作者一旦购买了电脑,手机,传真机,网络连接器,打印机等工具时,他们就成了真正的电子农民.Living and working in the same environment(8)_ traditional peasant farmers,they do not till the soil with their h
12、ands but(9)_ services from fertile resources of their minds.这些人与传统农民一样,生活和工作在相同的环境中。不同的是,他们不再用双手耕种土地,而是用丰富的脑力资源去提供服务。With no fancy office on the twenty-fifth floor,however,the micro-entrepreneur can have trouble(10)_ his or her credentials.Rightly or wrongly,people respond to(11)_ symbols like big o
13、ffices in smart building.“if the company can(12)_ all this,”people think,“it must be doing pretty well.”But(13)_ with one person doing business from a room at home,clients are tempted to think that their contact is not such a big shot after all.But is it(14)_ true that a central location and a large
14、 office make a better worker?然而,小企业家如果没有高楼大厦中奢华的办公室,他们就很难去证明自己的身份。不管对与错,人们总是认为摩天大楼中的超大办公室是身份地位的象征。人们总认为:如果一个公司能够支付这些开销,那么这个公司肯定相当不错。但是,当面对一个在家办公的人时,顾客总是认为他们毕竟不是在跟那样的名人联系。但是,有一个办公中心和超大型办公室就会有好的员工,这样的观点总是正确的吗?In fact,studies show that homeworkers are actually more(15)_ about completing tasks and indee
15、d work(16)_ hours than their colleagues in the office.Like the traditional peasant who owned his land,they feel that they(17)_ their work.Furthermore they arent tied to(18)_ but work when it suits them.If that means(19)_ an hour or two toplay with the children and then staying up(20)_ midnight to fi
16、nish a presentation,the net result is a happier worker who has completed the task.事实上,研究表明,那些在家办公的人更自律的完成工作,也确实比他们那些在办公室的同事工作时间更长。进一步讲,他们不愿被工作束缚,他们想在合适的时间工作,如果那样的话,就意味着他们可以画一两个小时去陪小孩玩耍,然后熬夜到很晚去完成工作,最终的结果是:员工是幸福的,而且又完成了工作。Unit three:When 1998 began,East Africa should have been at its most beautiful:n
17、ormally the short rainy season ends in December,the rivers subside,and the country sparkles;farmers raise crops,animals graze,tourists go on safaris.But this year was different.The rains were heavy and long.The water spread out for miles in places in Kanya and Somalia,cutting off villages and forcin
18、g herders to crowd with their livestock onto a few patches of dry land.Things quickly turned ugly.Camels,cows,sheep,and goats all stared dying of violent fevers.Some people,too,began to get sick.Some went temporarily blind;others began bleeding uncontrollably.1998 年伊始,东非本应该在它最美丽的时节:短暂的雨季正常情况下在 12 月结
19、束,河水回落,乡村生机盎然,农民在种植玉米,动物在草地上啃着青草,游客们在狩猎。但是,这一年不一样了,雨季很长而且雨量很大,大水在肯尼亚和索马里境内绵延数十里,是村庄与外界隔绝并且迫使牧人们将他们的牲畜赶到仅有的一小块干地上去。情况很快变得更糟,骆驼,牛,绵羊和山羊开始死于高热。一些人也开始得病,其中一些人短暂性失明,而另外一些人却流血不止。The disease was Rift Valley fever,caused by an obscure mosquitoborne virus.It pops up every few years in Africa when standing wa
20、ter encourages mosquitoeggs to hatch-this years huge floods brought a spectacular outbreak.According to official estimates,at least 89,000 people caught the disease.Two hundred died,but then the disease is not usually fatal to humans.Animal losses,however,were almost certainly vast-owners reported l
21、osing up to 90 percent of their herds.这种病叫裂谷热,是由一种靠蚊虫传播的不知名的病毒引起的。当死水促使大量蚊虫卵孵化时,这种病每隔几年就在欧洲爆发。这一年,特大洪水导致了这种病的大爆发,据官方统计,至少有 89000 人感染。虽然有 200 人死亡,但这种病通常不会对人造成致命威胁。但是,动物的损失量几乎可以说是很大的。牧民报告说损失量达到了牧群的 90%。Yet catastrophic as the East Africa floods were,they had to jostle for the worlds attention with oth
22、er cases of strange weather-with unusual occurrences of droughts,fires rains,cold snaps,and heat waves.Every year brings its own grab bag of such anomalies,but this year many of them could be linked to a phenomenon in the empty expanses of the equatorial Pacific-a change in the ocean currents and wi
23、nds that began in the early months of 1997 and that altered weather patterns around the world.The change in the weather was,of course,the work of El Nino.东非的洪水时灾难性的。它和其他情况的异常天气共同引起了全世界的注意。比如:干旱,大火,暴雨,冰冻和热浪。每年带来这种异常天气的几率就像中彩票一样。但是今年,许多怪异的天气都和赤道附近,太平洋大部分地区的一种现象有关。这些地区洋流和风向的转变始于 1997 年的前几个月,并且它们改变了整个世界
24、的天气模式。当然,这种天气的转变就是厄尔尼诺的杰作。By the end of 1997,El Nino had already become a celebrity of sorts.In 1998,however,El Ninos effects on the world came into full flower.It helped make the year the hottest ever recorded.In addition to Rift Valley fever,El Nino has been linked to an upsurge in diseases rangin
25、g from cholera to malaria to dengue fever,in Kenya,Cambodia,Peru,and other countries scattered around the globe.到 97 年底,厄尔尼诺勉强算是一种不知名的现象。然而到了 1998 年,厄尔尼诺对全世界的影响达到了顶峰,它使 1998 年成为有史以来最热的一年。除了裂谷热,厄尔尼诺还和一些疾病的猛增联系起来,这些疾病从伤寒到疟疾再到登革热,在肯尼亚,柬埔寨,秘鲁和其他国家传播,并蔓延到了全球。Unit fourWe may roughly classify the speakers
26、of English into two groups:one in which the speakers use English as their native language,the other in which the speakers learn English as asecond language for the purpose of educaion,commrece,and so on,In the(former)group we obviously,would include England,Canada,the United States,Australia,and New
27、 Zealand,Naturally,not all people in these countries speak English natively,but a large majority do.In the latter group,we would include,(among)others,India,Denmark,Kenya,Burma,Turkey,Ethiopia,and the Philippines,Not all these countries use English for the same(purpose).Each of them uses English(for
28、)important social and commercial activities.English also(serves)as an international second language.It is one of the important languages of commerce,Its use in international diplomacy is(strengthened)by its acceptance as one of the(official)languages of the United Nations.English is also the languag
29、e of the(majority)of technical materials in the world;therefore,many people(heavily)rlay on English to communicate with people of(similar)training and interests.Learning a second language(extends)ones vision and expands the mind.Looking at the world or oneself(through)a different language system sho
30、ws the(limits)of ones own perception and(adds)new dimensions to(familiar)objects or events.A second language teaches us different(ways)of labeling and organizing our experiences.The history and literature of a second language record the real(and)fictional lives of a people and their culture;knowledg
31、e of them adds to our(ability)to understand and to feel(as)they feel.Learning English as a second language provides another(means)of communication through which the window of the entire English speech community becomes a part of your heritage.Unit five:It is an astonishing fact that there are laws o
32、f nature,rules that summarize conveniently-not just qualitatively but quantitatively-however the world works.We might imagine a universe in which there are no such laws,in which the 1080 elementary particles that make up a universe like our own behave with utter and uncompromising abandon.To underst
33、and such a universe we would need a brain at least as massive as the universe.It seems unlikely that such a universe could have life and intelligence,because beings and brains require some degree of internal stability and order.But even if in a much more random universe there were such beings with a
34、n intelligence much greater than our own,there could not be much knowledge,passion or joy.自然法则不仅定性而且定量的对世界是如何运作的做出了方便的总结,这是一个令人十分惊讶的事实。我们可以想象这样一个宇宙,在那里有像组成我们的宇宙一样的 1080 个基本粒子杂乱无章的运行着。去理解这样一个宇宙,我们需要有一个像宇宙一样巨大的大脑。在这样的宇宙里有人和生命存在似乎是不可能的,因为生物和人类的存在需要一定程度的内不稳定和秩序。然而,即使在这样一个混乱的宇宙中又比我们更有智慧的生物存在,它们却不能像我们一样拥有
35、这么多的知识,激情和快乐。Fortunately for us,we live in a universe that has at least important parts that are knowable.Our common-sense experience and our evolutionary history have prepared us to understand something of the workaday world.When we go into other realms,however,common sense and ordinary intuition t
36、urn out to be highly unreliable guides.It is stunning that as we go close to the speed of light our mass increases indefinitely,we shrink toward zero thickness in the direction of motion,and time for us comes as near to stopping as we would like.Many people think that this is silly,and every week or
37、 two I get a letter from someone who complains to me about it.But it is virtually certain consequence not just of experiment but also of Albert Einsteins brilliant analysis of space and time called Theory of Relativity.It doesnot matter that these effects seem unreasonable to us.We are not in the ha
38、bit of traveling close to the speed of light.The testimony of our common sense is suspect at high velocities.对我们来说幸运的是,我们生活的宇宙至少重要部分是可知的。我们的常识和进化史位我们了解我们生活的宇宙做好了准备。然而,当我们进入另一个领域,我们的常识和直觉将是非常不可靠的。令人吃惊的是,当我们接近光速时,我们的质量会无限增加,在我们运动的方向上我们的厚度将会缩小为零,并且时间也会像我们所希望的那样几乎停止。许多人认为这是荒谬的。每隔一两周我都会收到抱怨这一理论的信。然而实际上这不
39、仅仅是实验所得出的结论,而是爱因斯坦关于时间和空间的精彩分析,即相对论。尽管这些结果对我们来说是不合理的。这不重要,我们还没有习惯于接近光速的旅行。据我们的常识,这样告诉的旅行是被质疑的。The idea that the world places restrictions on what humans might do is frustrating.Why shouldnt we be able to have intermediate rotational positions?Why cant we travel faster than the speed of light?But so
40、far as we can tell,this is the way the universe is constructed.Such prohibitions not only press us toward a little humility;they also make the world more knowable.宇宙将会对人们的行为有所限制,这个观点是令人沮丧的。为什么我们不能有居于中间的旋转位置?为什么我们不能以超过光速的速度运动呢?但据我们所知,这是宇宙的造物方式,这些限制是人类显得更加卑微,而且也让世界更加可知。Unit six Mother Growing OldPhili
41、ps father was reading,and his mother,with the marvellous serenity of older people,was clearing the table.She had finished weeks work,had bathed,and long,black hair,washed and combed,hung in a neat shining knot.Philip too was reading,but pages remained unturned.Philip supposed it often happened that
42、children had no intimate knowledge of their parents.His was also distant.That was because he did not understand them;they were strange to him and often even unreal.What had they been when they were my age,he wondered.Was it possiblethat they had been once boy and girl?What had their courtship been w
43、hen they were young?What could happen when the time came for them to die?It was difficulty to imagine that they had been young once,or indeed that they had even been other than as he saw them now.妈妈老了-菲利普的父亲在读书,他母亲在清理桌子,笼罩在一片老年人所特有的安详的宁静之中。她已经洗了澡,她那长长的黑头发洗过,梳的整整齐齐,束在一个闪闪发亮的发扣里。菲利普自己也在读书,但他的书一直都没有再翻。
44、他在想,是否是这么回事,孩子们通常不会对自己的父母有清晰的了解。他自己的情况就是这样。那是因为,他不了解他们,他们对他来说有时甚至是奇怪的、不真实的。他们在我这个年龄时在做什么?他想知道。有没有可能使他们重回青春时代?他们当年恋爱的情形是怎样的?如果他们去世,会怎么样?很难想象他们会再一次年轻,也很难想象他们此刻以外的任何时候的样子.Yet there was an old picture of his mother,taken over thirty years ago.Often Philip gazed at his mother as she was years ago,deeply
45、impressed and wondering at the young,fine face with sad innocent eyes.He could never picture his mother as a girl,and here she was,soft,feminine,and really lovely.At those times,too,Philip thought of earlier days when he himself had been younger and watched his mother in her bedroom brush her hair o
46、r powder her face.Once he examined her box of face powder.The cover was printed in soft grey-blue colours,and the design was of blossoms and leaves delicately intermingled,and the Frech words held a mysterious charm Pussy-willow,the box said.Fascinated,he used to say to himself,pussy-willow,pussy-wi
47、llow,hardly knowing what exactly those silky syllables meant.Later,as often in such cases,walking or at a theatre,thinking of other matters,the chance scent of powder would bing back the memory of his mother in those days.曾经有一张母亲的照片,三十年以前照的。菲利普对这张老照片印象非常深刻。他长久地看照片上的女子,看她那年轻、姣好的面容,以及那双忧郁无邪的眼睛。他永远无法把母
48、亲刻画成一个少女的样子,但母亲的少女时代的模样就在这里,温柔、娇美,十分可爱。这些时候,菲利普也会想起早些年,他看到母亲在卧室里梳头,或者在搽粉。有一次他仔细研究了那个粉盒,盖子是轻柔的灰蓝色,花纹是精致而错落有致的花和叶子,上面印着一行神秘的法语:Pussy-willow(意为飘落的柳絮)。Pussy-willow,Pussy-willow,他被深深吸引,常常轻轻念叨,虽然并不知道这几个丝绸般平滑的音节代表什么意思。后来,当他在散步,或者在剧院,或者想什么事情,偶尔那粉的香味就会不经意地飘来,将他带到当年关于母亲的记忆中去。While Philip might have had diffic
49、ulty in visualizing his parents younger days,they had had them,of course,and it was this realization,as he contemplated them over his book on that Friday evening,that saddened him.For their youth was gone,they were old now,and when something was gone it made no difference whether you had ever had it
50、 or not.It was truly as thougt it had never been.A memory was unsatisfying solace.His mother,in speaking of herself,would often say with wry humour,Downhill.Were going downhill now.They had been young,they would soon come to die,and it would all be finished,a drop of water losing its identity in the