大学英语精读英语第二单元

大学英语精读第二册课文翻译(全)UNTH 2-1It is humorous essay. 这是一篇幽默的文章。

But after reading it you will surely find that the author is most serious in writing it.但是读过之后你将会发现作者写这篇文章的时候是很严肃的。

Is There Life on Earth? 地球上有生命吗？Art Buchwald阿特.布奇沃德There was great excitement on the planet of Venus this week. 金星上本周异常热闹。

For the first time Venusian scientists managed to land a satellite on the plant Earth, 那里的科学家首次成功地将一颗卫星送上了地球，and is has been sending back signals as well as photographs ever since. 从此卫星便一直不断地发回信号和照片。

The satellite was directed into an area know as Manhattan 卫星被发射到一个叫曼哈顿的地区(named after the great Venusian astronomer Prof. （它是用金星上伟大的天文学家曼哈顿教授的名字命名的, Manhattan, who first discovered it with his telescope 20,000 light years ago). 两万光年前是他首次用望远镜发现了该地区）。

Because of excellent weather conditions and extremely strong signals, 由于良好的天气条件以及高质量的信号，Venusian scientists were able to get valuable information 使得金星上的科学家们能够获得宝贵资料as to the feasibility of a manned flying saucer landing on Earth. 有关载人飞碟能否在地球上着陆。

又是一个新学年——为什么上大学约翰·齐阿迪1 让我来给你们讲讲我在刚开始教书生涯时所遭到的一次惨败。

那是1940年1月，我刚从研究生院毕业，在堪萨斯大学开始第一个学期的执教。

有这么一个学生，瘦高个，样子活像一根长着头发的豆架。

他走进课堂，坐了下来，双臂交叉抱在胸前，看了看我，就像在说：“好吧，那就教我点什么吧。

”两周后我们开始学习《哈姆雷特》。

又过了三周，他走进我的办公室，双手放在臀部（双手叉腰），“你知道，”他说，“我来这儿是为了当药剂师。

我干嘛要念这些玩意儿？”因为连书都没带，他就指着我桌上的那本书说。

2 尽管我刚当老师，但我也蛮可以告诉此兄好些道理。

我本可以指出，他来报名的地方不是一家药剂学校，而是一所大学。

学业完成时他将获得一纸文凭，上面写的将是理科学士学位，而不会写“合格的捣药技术员”。

这一纸文凭不仅会证明他专修过药剂学，还会证明他受到过人类文明思想的熏陶。

也就是说，他进的不是一家技校，而是一所大学。

在大学里，学生既要接受专业训练，又要接受人文教育。

3 我本可以给他讲这一大通道理，但显然他在大学待不了多久，不会把我的话当回事。

4 不过当时我年轻气盛，责任感很强。

于是我就试着这么和他说：“在你日后的生活中，你一天的时间大概平均算下来是二十四小时，恋爱的时候会短些，失恋的时候会长些，但平均数基本上保持不变。

这中间有八个小时左右，你在睡觉。

”5 “然后在大概八个小时的每个工作日里，你会——但愿你会——努力从事有益的工作。

假设你已经上完药剂师学校，或工程、法律学校，或随便其他什么学校，在那八小时内你将运用你的专业技能。

你要做的是确保别因自己技艺不精而把氰化物掺进阿司匹林，或让公牛跃过你修建的篱笆，或因为你的无能而把你的委托人送上电椅。

这些都是有用的职业。

这些工作都需要人人应该尊重的技能，也能给你带来基本的满足感。

不说别的，很可能你要靠它们来养家糊口（换取餐桌的食物，养活你的妻子，养育你的子女）。

word格式-可编辑-感谢下载支持英语close汇总第一单元1.At a dinner party the guests and their hosts were involved in a heated discussion ,or rather an argument concerning the question of whether women had as much self-control as men .As they argued, signs appeared to one of the guests that a cobra was present in the room. while his first impulse was to jump back ,he knew that this would be a mistake; so he urged the other dimmers in a commanding tone to hold still without telling then why .shortly ,the cobra emerged on the veranda; and then man ran quickly to the door to slam it shut .it was soon discovered that the had crawled across the foot lf the hostess ,who kept calm ,not uttering a sound .thus the conclusion of this crisis laid bare the fact that women have as much selfcontrol as men.2.lying comfortably upon a sofa, harket brayton smiled as he read the book marvels of science .suddenly something in a dark comer of the room attracted his attention in the shadow ,under the bed,he noticed two points of light about an inch apart,shinng with a greenish glow .his attention was now directed fully to those shining points. there, almost right under the foot-rail of the bed ,he saw the body of a large snake .the points of light were its eyes! Brayton rose to his feet and prepared to back softly away from the snake At that moment ,howeve r ,he felt strangely unwilling to do so .instead of moving backward as planned ,he took a step forward, and then another! the snake made neither sound nor motion, but its evil head was still thrust forth ,its eyes were shining as if electrified, sending needles of light through the shadows. Frightened ,brayton fell to the floor ,dead .Two hours later, when the doctor was pulling the body out ,he chanced to look under the bed, “good god” he cried a snakeHe reached under the bed, pulled out the snake and threw it to the center of the room , where it lay without motion, it was a snake made of cloth and filled with cotton Its eyes were two buttons .第二单元Thomas jefferson was not only a man of ideas, he was also a man ofaction he believed that, rather than simply learn from reading ,one should engage in personal investigations to gain knowledge from its source ,he also believed that one could obtain valuable knowledge not only from expert people of higher classes, but also from people of people of humble origins .jefferson felt that one must think for himself rather than simply seek agreement with others ;and that it was wrong to go out of one’s way to avoid disagreement or conflict .in spite of his critics, Jefferson constantly held to and acced on his own beliefs.americans owe much Thomas Jefferson for the legacy of ideas and examples he left behind2.When Jefferson began to write the declaration of independence, he was bearing a heavy load of personal sorrow and trouble .Only a few months before, in September, his baby daughter ,aged one and a half had died ,then ,in the following marchm his mother had also died. Now he learned that his wofe was lying seriously ill at homeIt took so many days for news to come from there that she might be dying even as he sat at his desk .always in his mind was the thought that if only he could be there he minght be able to save her life. perhaps, too, if he had not been obliged to be away from home so much he might have saved the lives of his mother and daughter.it was thoughts such as these that may have given his work its passion and nobility, as great sorrow often does when he wrote, for all the world to see the wrongs that England had done to America ,maybe he felt them all the more strongly because his own happiness was mow in such great danger chiefly through englands selfish and foolish actions第三单元While waiting to enter university .the young man saw a teaching jobadvertised in a local newspaper ;and thought he thought his chancesof getting the job were slim ,he decided to apply .when he arrived at theschool for his interview, he sensed in the headmaster an attitude of superiority and disapproval .he interview consisted of a number of questions regarding the young man’s education and background .and then he was asked whether or not he attached importance to games as part of a boy’s schooling .obviously his answer was not entirely satisfactory to the headmaster ,in spite of the fact that he and the headmaster had little in common in their views on education ,the young man wastold that he would be hired .however,at a salary of only twelve pounds per week and with the prospect of having to work under the headmaster’s wife ,the teaching post had become quite undesirable.2. a gentleman put an advertisement in a newspaper for a boy to work in his office. Out of nearly fifty persons who came to apply ,the man selected one and dismissed the others .I should like to know ,said a friend ,the reason you select that boy, who brought not a single letter ,not a single recommendation.You are wrong,said the gentleman .the had a great many .he wied hid feet at the door and closed the door behind him, showing that he was careful. He gave his seat immediately to that old man,showing that he was kind and thoughtful .he took off his cap when he came in and answered my questions promptly .showing that he was polite and gentlemanly .All the others stepped over the book which I had purposely put on the floor .he picked it up and placed it on the table; and he waited for his turn instead of pushing and crowding.when o talked to him .i noticed his tidy clothing, his neatly brushed hair and his clean finger hails .can’t you see that these things are excellent recommendations? O consider them more significant than letters.第四单元As a boy and as an adult ,the authou of this article felt awed andbewildered at the personality of his father’s friend the great scientist albert Einstein .what inpressed him most was einstenin’s modest manner .though a profound thinker ,Einstein never displayed vanity, jealousy ,or personal ambition ,and though his ideas were singled out as something special and he was awarded the nobel prize ,he seemed tofind his own fame a puzzle .it appeared that the great man was not capable ofconceit or pretension; and for this reason. The author always felt at ease in his presence .2\. At one time Einstein traveled all over the united states giving lectures. He traveled by car and soon became quite friendly with the driver.The driver listened carefully to einstein’s lecture, which the great scientist gave again and again one day he told Einstein that he knew the lecture so well that he was sure he could give it himself. Einstein smiled and said why don’t you gave the lecture for me next time the driver agreedThat evening the two of them went along to the lecture hall nobody there had seen Einstein before . as the driver took his place on the stage everybody clapped .then he began the lecture .sure enough .he did not make a single mistake .it was a great success.and when it was over, people clapped and clapped .then he started to leave .shaking hands woth everybody ,while Einstein followed quietly a few steps behind.Just before they got to the door ,a man stopped them and asked the driver a very difficult question .the driver listened carefully .of course he did not understand a thing ,but he nodded his head as if he did . when the man stopped talking, the driver said that he thought the question was very interesting but really quite simple. In fact , in order to show how simple it was ,he would ask his driver to answer it!第五单元It is a apparent that the temperature ofthe earth is rising .if this trend is allowed to continue ,many coastal cities will disapper beneath the ocean waves ,much farmland woll be lost to the sea, and the resulting pressure on food supply may cause widespread starvation and lead to the collapse of the whole social structureWhat’s to be done ? there’s no alternative but to get at the villain of all this ,carbon dioxide .carbon dioxide is not very poisonous ,.and in small quantities it does us no harm .plants absorb it and convert it into their own tissue,which serve as the basic food supply for all of animal life .including human beings ,in the process they liberate oxygen, which,again ,is essential to all animal life .however, carbon dioxide lets in visible sunlight during the day, but blocks infrared radiation at nighr ,when itsconcentration in the atmosphere rises, the temperature on earth goes up ,too But carbon dioxide is not rising by itself .if we stop cutting down the forests and consume less coal and gas. Or use fuel that does not produce carbon dioxide ,such as nuclear and solar energy, in all likelihood we can restore its concentration toprevious levels and save mankind from disaster .2\As the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases steadily, earth’s average temperature will go up slightly .winters will grow a bit milder on the average and summers a bit hotter that may not seem frightening, milder winters don’t seem bad ,and as for hotter summers ,we can just run our air –conditioning a bit more .But consider this : if winters in general grow milder ,less snow will fall during the cold season .if summers in general grow hotter ,more snow will melt during the cold season. That means that, little by little ,the snow line will move away from the equator toward the poles. The glaciers will retreat,the mountaintops will grow more bare, and thepolar ice caps will begin to meltThat might be annoying to skiers and to other devotees of winter sports but would it neccssarily bother the rest of us? After all. If the snow line moves north .it might be possible to grow more food in Canada .scandinavia .and russia .Still if the cold weather moves poleward. Then so do the storm belts the desert regions that now exist in subtropical areas will greatly expand, and fertile land gained in the north will be list in the south .more may be lost than gained .It is the melting of the ice caps, though, that is the worst change, it is this which demonstrates the villainy of carbon dioxide .Something like 90 percent of the ice in the world is to be found in the huge Antarctica ice cap, and another 8 percent is in the Greenland ice cap. In both places the ice is piled miles high, if these ice caps begin tomelt. The water that forms won’t stay in place. It will drip down into theocean.taking up more space and causing sea level to rise. Low-lying coastal areas worldwide would be flooded and the rising oceans would surge farther inland during storms, adding to the problem of coastal flooding.第六单元1. dr. nolen believes that the most important time in a surgical career is the point at which the surgeon begins to feel confident in his ability to make sound decisionsin each individual case. Many young doctors dwell on the possibility that they may have made a mistake, especially in emergency situations. At such times , they sweat over patients, wondering if they are competent enough for the job they are attempting to do. And they feel that bound to make a fatal error a at one time or another. When a surgeon learns to relax and approach these situations with confidence in his ability to handle them successfully, according to dr.nolen. he has taken the first step to maturity.2. a man went to see his doctor because he was suffering from pains in his stomach. After the doctor had examined him carefully. He said to him , well, there’s nothing really wrong with you, I’m glad to say Your only trouble is that you worry too much. You know I had a man with the same trouble as you in here a few days ago, and I gave him the same advice, as I’m going to give you.He was worried because he couldn’t pay his tailor’s bills. I told him not to worry his head off about the bills any more. He followed my advice, and when he came to see me again two days ago, he told me that he now felt quite all right again.Yes, I know all about that, answered patient sadly. You see, I’m that man’s tailor .B篇The patient was lying in bed after a minor operation. His friend asked him how he was getting along.Pretty well, as the answer .after my first operation. They had to cut me open again. It seems the surgeon had left a sponge in me and they had to get that out ,But you got over it all rigtOh yes, only I had another operation yesterday. They found a scalpel which had been sewed up in me by mistake .But the patient suddenly got nervous again, for just then the surgeon hurried through the ward saying :Has anyone seen my hat around here?i left it somewhere yesterday.。

大学英语精读Book2第二册第三版课后翻译答案Book2 Unit1翻译1.她砰地关上门，一声不吭地走了，他们之间那场争执就此结束。

Their argument ended when she slammed the door and left without a word.2.出席晚宴的客人对那个美国人威严的语气感到有点意外。

The guests at the dinner party were slightly surprised at the commanding toneof theAmerican.3.约翰尼已长大成熟，不再害怕独自呆在家里了。

Johnny has outgrown the fear of staying at home alone.4.当全部乘客都向出口处(exit)走去时，他却独自留在座位上，好像不愿意离开这架飞机似的。

While all the other passengers made for the exit, he alone remained in his seatas ifunwilling to leave the plane.5.这xx必须交给威尔逊博士本人。

The letter is to be handed to Dr. Wilson himself.6.南希虽然很想参加辩论，但腼腆得不敢开口。

While she felt like joining in the argument, Nancy was too shy to open hermouth.7.你觉得什么时候最有可能在家里找到他？What do you think is the likeliest time to find him at home8.猎人一看见有只狐狸从树丛中出现并向他设下(lay)的陷阱(trap)方向跑去，脸上顿时闪出了兴奋的表情。

The hunter’s face lit up with excitement as soon as he saw a fox emerge fromamongthe bushes and run in the direction of / make for the trap he had laid.Book2 Unit2翻译1)会上有人建议任命一个十一人委员会来制定新章程。

现代⼤学英语精读第⼆版UnitUnit句⼦翻译答案U n i t 1 1. He is so devoted to his research that it never occurs to him that he will soon have to retire. 他对他的研究如此专⼼致志，从来没有过很快就要退休的念头。

2.Many people have observed that，without effective checks，we all havea tendency to abuse our power. 很多⼈都曾说过，如果没有有效的制约，我们都有滥⽤权⼒的倾向。

3. Some countries refuse to get involved in this dispute and they resent any foreign interference. 有些国家拒绝卷⼊这⼀争端，⽽且他们对外国的⼲涉⾮常反感。

4. The control of sand storms will involve a tremendous amount of work and money. 控制沙尘暴需要⼤量的⼯作和资⾦。

5. You have to take the local conditions into consideration when you apply these technologies. 你们⽤这些技术的时候，必须考虑到当地的条件。

6. All applicants will have to fill out these forms and mail in an application fee of 50 dollars. 所有的申请者都必须填好这些表格，然后邮寄50美元的报名费。

7.Based on his observation of children’s behavior，he came to the conclusion that learning is a natural pleasure. 他根据对孩⼦们⾏为的观察得出结论：学习是⼀种⾃然的乐趣。

1.The dinner partyI first heard this tale in India, where is told as if true -- though any naturalist would know it couldn't be. Later someone told me that the story appeared in a magazine shortly before the First World War. That magazine story, and the person who wrote it, I have never been able to track down.The country is India. A colonial official and his wife are giving a large dinner party. They are seated with their guests -- officers and their wives, and a visiting American naturalist -- in their spacious dining room, which has a bare marble floor, open rafters and wide glass doors opening onto a veranda.A spirited discussion springs up between a young girl who says that women have outgrown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era and a major who says that they haven't."A woman's reaction in any crisis," the major says, "is to scream. And while a man may feel like it, he has thatounce more of control than a woman has. And that last ounce is what really counts."The American does not join in the argument but watches the other guests. As he looks, he sees a strange expression come over the face of the hostess. She is staring straight ahead, her muscles contracting slightly. She motions to the native boy standing behind her chair and whispers something to him. The boy's eyes widen: he quickly leaves the room.Of the guests, none except the American notices this or sees the boy place a bowl of milk on the veranda just outside the open doors.The American comes to with a start. In India, milk in a bowl means only one thing -- bait for a snake. He realizes there must be a cobra in the room. He looks up at the rafters -- the likeliest place -- but they are bare. Three corners of the room are empty, and in the fourth the servants are waiting to serve the next course. There is only one place left -- under the table.His first impulse is to jump back and warn the others, but he knows the commotion would frighten the cobrainto striking. He speaks quickly, the tone of his voice so commanding that it silences everyone."I want to know just what control everyone at this table has. I will count three hundred -- that's five minutes -- and not one of you is to move a muscle. Those who move will forfeit 50 rupees. Ready?"The 20 people sit like stone images while he counts. He is saying "...two hundred and eighty..." when, out of the corner of his eye, he sees the cobra emerge and make for the bowl of milk. Screams ring out as he jumps to slam the veranda doors safely shut."You were right, Major!" the host exclaims. "A man has just shown us an example of perfect self-control.""Just a minute," the American says, turning to his hostess. "Mrs. Wynnes, how did you know that cobra was in the room?"A faint smile lights up the woman's face as she replies: "Because it was crawling across my foot."提问者：纯美素然 - 三级最佳答案检举晚宴我最初听到这个故事是在印度，那儿的人们今天讲起它来仍好像确有其事似的——尽管任何一位博物学家都知道这不可能是真的。

Unit1Another School Year — What ForLet me tell you one of the earliest disasters in my career as a teacher. It was January of 1940 and I was fresh out of graduate school starting my first semester at the University of Kansas City. Part of the student body was a beanpole with hair on top who came into my class, sat down, folded his arms, and looked at me as if to say "All right, teach me something." Two weeks later we started Hamlet. Three weeks later he came into my office with his hands on his hips. "Look," he said, "I came here to be a pharmacist. Why do I have to read this stuff" And not having a book of his own to point to, he pointed to mine which was lying on the desk.New as I was to the faculty, I could have told this specimen a number of things. I could have pointed out that he had enrolled, not in a drugstore-mechanics school, but in a college and that at the end of his course meant to reach for a scroll that read Bachelor of Science. It would not read: Qualified Pill-Grinding Technician. It would certify that he had specialized in pharmacy, but it would further certify that he had been exposed to some of the ideas mankind has generated within its history. That is to say, he had not entered a technical training schoolbut a university and in universities students enroll for both training and education.I could have told him all this, but it was fairly obvious he wasn't going to be around long enough for it to matter. Nevertheless, I was young and I had a high sense of duty and I tried to put it this way: "For the rest of your life," I said, "your days are going to average out to about twenty-four hours. They will be a little shorter when you are in love, and a little longer when you are out of love, but the average will tend to hold. For eight of these hours, more or less, you will be asleep.""Then for about eight hours of each working day you will, I hope, be usefully employed. Assume you have gone through pharmacy school —or engineering, or law school, or whatever —during those eight hours you will be using your professional skills. You will see to it that the cyanide stays out of the aspirin, that the bull doesn't jump the fence, or that your client doesn't go to the electric chair as a result of your incompetence. These are all useful pursuits. They involve skills every man must respect, and they can all bring you basic satisfactions. Along with everything else, they will probably be what puts food on your table, supports your wife, and rearsyour children. They will be your income, and may it always suffice.""But having finished the day's work, what do you do with those other eight hours Let's say you go home to your family. What sort of family are you raising Will the children ever be exposed to a reasonably penetrating idea at home Will you be presiding over a family that maintains some contact with the great democratic intellect Will there be a book in the house Will there be a painting a reasonably sensitive man can look at without shuddering Will the kids ever get to hear Bach" That is about what I said, but this particular pest was not interested. "Look," he said, "you professors raise your kids your way; I'll take care of my own. Me, I'm out to make money." "I hope you make a lot of it," I told him, "because you're going to be badly stuck for something to do when you're not signing checks."Fourteen years later I am still teaching, and I am here to tell you that the business of the college is not only to train you, but to put you in touch with what the best human minds have thought. If you have no time for Shakespeare, for a basic look at philosophy, for the continuity of the fine arts, for that lesson of man's development we call history — then you haveno business being in college. You are on your way to being that new species of mechanized savage, the push-button Neanderthal. Our colleges inevitably graduate a number of such life forms, but it cannot be said that they went to college; rather the college went through them — without making contact.No one gets to be a human being unaided. There is not time enough in a single lifetime to invent for oneself everything one needs to know in order to be a civilized human.Assume, for example, that you want to be a physicist. You pass the great stone halls of, say, M. I. T., and there cut into the stone are the names of the scientists. The chances are that few, if any, of you will leave your names to be cut into those stones. Yet any of you who managed to stay awake through part of a high school course in physics, knows more about physics than did many of those great scholars of the past. You know more because they left you what they knew, because you can start from what the past learned for you.And as this is true of the techniques of mankind, so it is true of mankind's spiritual resources. Most of these resources, both technical and spiritual, are stored in books. Books are man's peculiar accomplishment. When you have read a book, you have added to your human experience. Read Homer and your mindincludes a piece of Homer's mind. Through books you can acquire at least fragments of the mind and experience of Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare —the list is endless. For a great book is necessarily a gift; it offers you a life you have not the time to live yourself, and it takes you into a world you have not the time to travel in literal time. A civilized mind is, in essence, one that contains many such lives and many such worlds. If you are too much in a hurry, or too arrogantly proud of your own limitations, to accept as a gift to your humanity some pieces of the minds of Aristotle, or Chaucer, or Einstein, you are neither a developed human nor a useful citizen of a democracy.I think it was La Rochefoucauld who said that most people would never fall in love if they hadn't read about it. He might have said that no one would ever manage to become human if they hadn't read about it.I speak, I'm sure, for the faculty of the liberal arts college and for the faculties of the specialized schools as well, when I say that a university has no real existence and no real purpose except as it succeeds in putting you in touch, both as specialists and as humans, with those human minds your human mind needs to include. The faculty, by its very existence, saysimplicitly: "We have been aided by many people, and by many books, in our attempt to make ourselves some sort of storehouse of human experience. We are here to make available to you, as best we can, that expertise."Unit2Maheegun My BrotherThe year I found Maheegun, spring was late in coming. That day, I was spearing fish with my grandfather when I heard the faint crying and found the shivering wolf cub.As I bent down, he moved weakly toward me. I picked him up and put him inside my jacket. Little Maheegun gained strength after I got the first few drops of warm milk in him. He wiggled and soon he was full and warm.My grandfather finally agreed to let me keep him.That year, which was my 14th, was the happiest of my life. Not that we didn't have our troubles. Maheegun was the most mischievous wolf cub ever. He was curious too. Like looking into Grandma's sewing basket — which he upset, scattering thread and buttons all over the floor. At such times, she would chase him out with a broom and Maheegun would poke his head around the corner, waiting for things to quiet down.That summer Maheegun and I became hunting partners. We hunted the grasshoppers that leaped about like little rockets. And in the fall, after the first snow our games took us to the nearest meadows in search of field mice. By then, Maheegun was half grown. Gone was the puppy-wool coat. In its place was a handsome black mantle.The winter months that came soon after were the happiest I could remember. They belonged only to Maheegun and myself. Often we would make a fire in the bushes. Maheegun would lay his head between his front paws, with his eyes on me as I told him stories. It all served to fog my mind with pleasure so that I forgot my Grandpa's repeated warnings, and one night left Maheegun unchained. The following morning in sailed Mrs. Yesno, wild with anger, who demanded Maheegun be shot because he had killed her rooster. The next morning, my grandpa announced that we were going to take Maheegun to the north shack.By the time we reached the lake where the trapper's shack stood, Maheegun seemed to have become restless. Often he would sit with his nose to the sky, turning his head this way and that as if to check the wind.The warmth of the stove soon brought sleep to me. But something caused me to wake up with a start. I sat up, and in themoon-flooded cabin was my grandfather standing beside me. "Come and see, son," whispered my grandfather.Outside the moon was full and the world looked all white with snow. He pointed to a rock that stood high at the edge of the lake. On the top was the clear outline of a great wolf sitting still, ears pointed, alert, listening."Maheegun," whispered my grandfather.Slowly the wolf raised his muzzle. "Oooo-oo-wow-wowoo-oooo!" The whole white world thrilled to that wild cry. Then after a while, from the distance came a softer call in reply. Maheegun stirred, with the deep rumble of pleasure in his throat. He slipped down the rock and headed out across the ice."He's gone," I said."Yes, he's gone to that young she-wolf." My grandfather slowly filled his pipe. "He will take her for life, hunt for her, protect her. This is the way the Creator planned life. No man can change it."I tried to tell myself it was all for the best, but it was hard to lose my brother.For the next two years I was as busy as a squirrel storing nuts for the winter. But once or twice when I heard wolf cries from distant hills, I would still wonder if Maheegun, in his battlefor life, found time to remember me.It was not long after that I found the answer.Easter came early that year and during the holidays I went to visit my cousins.My uncle was to bring me home in his truck. But he was detained by some urgent business. So I decided to come back home on my own.A mile down the road I slipped into my snowshoes and turned into the bush. The strong sunshine had dimmed. I had not gone far before big flakes of snow began drifting down.The snow thickened fast. I could not locate the tall pine that stood on the north slope of Little Mountain. I circled to my right and stumbled into a snow-filled creek bed. By then the snow had made a blanket of white darkness, but I knew only too well there should have been no creek there.I tried to travel west but only to hit the creek again. I knew I had gone in a great circle and I was lost.There was only one thing to do. Camp for the night and hope that by morning the storm would have blown itself out. I quickly made a bed of boughs and started a fire with the bark of an old dead birch. The first night I was comfortable enough. But when the first gray light came I realized that I was in deep trouble.The storm was even worse. Everything had been smothered by the fierce whiteness.The light of another day still saw no end to the storm. I began to get confused. I couldn't recall whether it had been storming for three or four days.Then came the clear dawn. A great white stillness had taken over and with it, biting cold. My supply of wood was almost gone. There must be more.Slashing off green branches with my knife, I cut my hand and blood spurted freely from my wound. It was some time before the bleeding stopped. I wrapped my hand with a piece of cloth I tore off from my shirt. After some time, my fingers grew cold and numb, so I took the bandage off and threw it away.How long I squatted over my dying fire I don't know. But then I saw the gray shadow between the trees. It was a timber wolf. He had followed the blood spots on the snow to the blood-soaked bandage."Yap... yap... yap... yoooo!" The howl seemed to freeze the world with fear.It was the food cry. He was calling, "Come, brothers, I have found meat." And I was the meat!Soon his hunting partner came to join him. Any time now, Ithought, their teeth would pierce my bones.Suddenly the world exploded in snarls. I was thrown against the branches of the shelter. But I felt no pain. And a great silence had come. Slowly I worked my way out of the snow and raised my head. There, about 50 feet away, crouched my two attackers with their tails between their legs. Then I heard a noise to my side and turned my head. There stood a giant black wolf. It was Maheegun, and he had driven off the others. "Maheegun... Maheegun...," I sobbed, as I moved through the snow toward him. "My brother, my brother," I said, giving him my hand. He reached out and licked at the dried blood.I got my little fire going again, and as I squatted by it, I started to cry. Maybe it was relief or weakness or both — I don't know. Maheegun whimpered too.Maheegun stayed with me through the long night, watching me with those big eyes. The cold and loss of blood were taking their toll.The sun was midway across the sky when I noticed how restless Maheegun had become. He would run away a few paces — head up, listening — then run back to me. Then I heard. It was dogs. It was the searching party! I put the last of my birch bark on the fire and fanned it into life.The sound of the dogs grew louder. Then the voices of men. Suddenly, as if by magic, the police dog team came up out of the creek bed, and a man came running toward my fire. It was my grandfather.The old hunter stopped suddenly when he saw the wolf. He raised his rifle. "Don't shoot!" I screamed and ran toward him, falling through the snow. "It's Maheegun. Don't shoot!"He lowered his rifle. Then I fell forward on my face, into the snow.I woke up in my bedroom. It was quite some time before my eyes came into focus enough to see my grandfather sitting by my bed. "You have slept three days," he said softly. "The doc says you will be all right in a week or two.""And Maheegun" I asked weakly."He should be fine. He is with his own kind."Unit3More Crime and Less PunishmentIf you are looking for an explanation of why we don't get tough with criminals, you need only look at the numbers. Each year almost a third of the households in America are victims of violence or theft. This amounts to more than 41 million crimes,many more than we are able to punish. There are also too many criminals. The best estimates suggest that 36 million to 40 million people (16 to 18 percent of the U. S. population) have arrest records for nontraffic offenses. We already have 2. 4 million people under some form of correctional supervision, 412, 000 of them locked away in a prison cell. We don't have room for any more!The painful fact is that the more crime there is the less we are able to punish it. This is why the certainty and severity of punishment must go down when the crime rate goes up. Countries like Saudi Arabia can afford to give out harsh punishments precisely because they have so little crime. But can we afford to cut off the hands of those who committed more than 35 million property crimes each year Can we send them to prison Can we execute more than 22,000 murderersWe need to think about the relationship between punishment and crime in a new way. A decade of careful research has failed to provide clear and convincing evidence that the threat of punishment reduces crime. We think that punishment deters crime, but it just might be the other way around. It just might be that crime deters punishment: that there is so much crime that it simply cannot be punished.This is the situation we find ourselves in today. Just as the decline in the number of high-school graduates has made it easier to gain admission to the college of one's choice, the gradual increase in the criminal population has made it more difficult to get into prison. While elite colleges and universities still have high standards of admissions, some of the most "exclusive" prisons now require about five prior serious crimes before an inmate is accepted into their correctional program. Our current crop of prisoners is an elite group, on the whole much more serious offenders than those who were once imprisoned in Alcatraz.These features show that it makes little sense to blame the police, judges or correctional personnel for being soft on criminals. There is not much else they can do. The police can't find most criminals and those they do find are difficult and costly to convict. Those convicted can't all be sent to prison. The society demands that we do everything we can against crime. The practical reality is that there is very little the police, courts or prisons can do about the crime problem. The criminal justice system must then become as powerless as a parent who has charge of hundreds of teenage children and who is nonetheless expected to answer the TV message: "It's 10 o'clock!Do you know where your children are"A few statistics from the Justice Department's recent "Report to the Nation on Crime and Justice" illustrate my point. Of every 100 serious crimes committed in America, only 33 are actually reported to the police. Of the 33 reported, about six lead to arrest. Of the six arrested, only three are prosecuted and convicted. The others are rejected or dismissed due to evidence or witness problems or are sent elsewhere for medical treatment instead of punishment. Of the three convicted, only one is sent to prison. The other two are allowed to live in their community under supervision. Of the select few sent to prison, more than half receive a maximum sentence of five years. The average inmate, however, leaves prison in about two years. Most prisoners gain early release not because parole boards are too easy on crime, but because it is much cheaper to supervise a criminal in the community. And, of course, prison officials must make room for the new prisoners sent almost daily from the courts.We could, of course, get tough with the people we already have in prison and keep them locked up for longer periods of time. Yet when measured against the lower crime rates this would probably produce, longer prison sentences are not worth thecost to state and local governments. Besides, those states that have tried to gain voters' approval for bonds to build new prisons often discover that the public is unwilling to pay for prison construction.And if it were willing to pay, long prison sentences may not be effective in reducing crime. In 1981, 124,000 convicts were released from prison. If we had kept them in jail for an additional year, how many crimes would have been prevented While it is not possible to know the true amount of crime committed by people released from prison in any given year, we do know the extent to which those under parole are jailed again for major crime convictions. This number is a surprisingly low 6 percent (after three years it rises to only 11 percent). Even if released prisoners commit an average of two crimes each, this would amount to only 15,000 crimes prevented: a drop in the bucket when measured against the 41 million crimes committed each year.More time spent in prison is also more expensive. The best estimates are that it costs an average of $13,000 to keep a person in prison for one year. If we had a place to keep the 124,000 released prisoners, it would have cost us $ billion to prevent 15,000 crimes. This works out to more than $100,000 percrime prevented. But there is more. With the average cost of prison construction running around $50,000 per bed, it would cost more than $6 billion to build the necessary cells. The first-year operating cost would be $150,000 per crime prevented, worth it if the victim were you or me, but much too expensive to be feasible as a national policy.Faced with the reality of the numbers, I will not be so foolish as to suggest a solution to the crime problem. My contribution to the public debate begins and ends with this simple observation: getting tough with criminals is not the answer.Unit4The Nightingale and the Rose "She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses," cried the young Student, "but in all my garden there is no red rose."From her nest in the oak tree the Nightingale heard him and she looked out through the leaves and wondered."No red rose in all my garden!" he cried, and his beautiful eyes filled with tears. "Ah, I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose my life is made wretched.""Here at last is a true lover," said the Nightingale. "Night after night have I sung of him, and now I see him."The Prince gives a ball tomorrow night," murmured the young Student, "and my love will be there. If I bring her a red rose she will dance with me till dawn. I shall hold her in my arms, and she will lean her head upon my shoulder. But there is no red rose in my garden, so I shall sit lonely and my heart will break.""Here, indeed, is the true lover," said the Nightingale. Surely love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds and opals."The musicians will play upon their stringed instruments," said the young Student, "and my love will dance to the sound of the harp and the violin. She will dance so lightly that her feet will not touch the floor. But with me she will not dance, for I have no red rose to give her," and he flung himself down on the grass, and buried his face in his hands, and wept. "Why is he weeping" asked a green Lizard, as he ran past him with his tail in the air."Why, indeed" said a Butterfly, who was fluttering about after a sunbeam."Why, indeed" whispered a Daisy to his neighbor, in a soft, lowvoice."He is weeping for a red rose," said the Nightingale. "For a red rose" they cried, "how very ridiculous!" and the little Lizard, who was something of a cynic, laughed outright. But the Nightingale understood the Student's sorrow, and sat silent in the Oak-tree.Suddenly she spread her brown wings for flight, and soared into the air. She passed through the grove like a shadow and like a shadow she sailed across the garden.In the centre of the grass-plot stood a beautiful Rose-tree, and when she saw it she flew over to it. "Give me a red rose," she cried, "and I will sing you my sweetest song."But the Tree shook its head."My roses are white," it answered, "as white as the foam of the sea, and whiter than the snow upon the mountain. But go to my brother who grows round the old sun-dial, and perhaps he will give you what you want."So the Nightingale flew over to the Rose-tree that was growing round the old sun-dial."Give me a red rose," she cried, "and I will sing you my sweetest song." But the Tree shook its head."My roses are yellow," it answered, "as yellow as the hair ofthe mermaiden, and yellower than the daffodil that blooms In the meadow. But go to my brother who grows beneath the Student's window, and perhaps he will give you what you want."So the Nightingale flew over to the Rose-tree that was growing beneath the Student's window."Give me a red rose," she cried, "and I will sing you my sweetest song." But the Tree shook its head."My roses are red," it answered, "as red as the feet of the dove, and redder than the great fans of coral. But the winter has chilled my veins, and the frost has nipped my buds, and the storm has broken my branches, and I shall have no roses at all this year.""One red rose is all that I want," cried the Nightingale, "only one red rose! Is there no way by which I can get it" "There is a way," answered the Tree, "but it is so terrible that I dare not tell it to you.""Tell it to me," said the Nightingale, "I am not afraid." "If you want a red rose," said the Tree, "you must build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with your own heart's blood. You must sing to me with your breast against a thorn. All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn must pierce your heart, and your life-blood must flow into my veins, and become mine.""Death is a great price to pay for a red rose," cried the Nightingale, "and life is very dear to all. Yet love is better than life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man"So she spread her brown wings for flight, and soared into the air. She swept over the garden like a shadow, and like a shadow she sailed through the grove.The young Student was still lying on the grass, and the tears were not yet dry in his beautiful eyes. "Be happy," cried the Nightingale, "be happy, you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart's blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover."The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him. But the Oak-tree understood and felt sad, for he was very fond of the little Nightingale. "Sing me one last song," he whispered. "I shall feel lonely when you are gone."So the Nightingale sang to the Oak-tree, and her voice was like water bubbling from a silver jar.When she had finished her song, the Student got up."She has form," he said to himself, as he walked away. "Thatcannot be denied. But has she got feeling I am afraid not. In fact, like most artists, she is all style without any sincerity." And he went to his room, and lay down on his bed, and after a time, he fell asleep.And when the Moon shone in the heaven, the Nightingale flew to the Rose-tree, and set her breast against the thorn. All night long she sang with her breast against the thorn, and the cold crystal Moon leaned down and listened. All night long she sang, and the thorn went deeper into her breast, and her life-blood ebbed away from her.She sang first of the birth of love in the heart of a boy and a girl. And on the topmost spray of the Rose-tree there blossomed a marvelous rose, petal following petal, as song followed song.But the Tree cried to the Nightingale to press closer against the thorn. "Press closer, little Nightingale," cried the Tree, "or the Day will come before the rose is finished."So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and louder and louder grew her song, for she sang of the birth of passion in the soul of a man and a maid.And a delicate flush of pink came into the leaves of the rose, like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kisses thelips of the bride. But the thorn had not yet reached her heart so the rose's heart remained white.And the Tree cried to the Nightingale to press closer against the thorn. "Press closer, little Nightingale," cried the Tree, "or the Day will come before the rose is finished."So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot through her. Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song, for she sang of the Love that is perfected by Death, of the Love that dies not in the tomb.And the marvelous rose became crimson. Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as ruby was the heart.But the Nightingale's voice grew fainter and a film came over her eyes. Fainter and fainter grew her song, and she felt something choking her in her throat.Then she gave one last burst of music. The white Moon heard it, and she forgot the dawn, and lingered on in the sky. The Red Rose heard it, and trembled all over with ecstasy, and opened its petals in the cold morning air."Look, look!" cried the Tree, "the rose is finished now." But the Nightingale made no answer, for she was lying dead in the long grass, with the thorn in her heart.。