英语长篇阅读

有趣的长篇英语故事阅读小学英语阅读教学不仅要培养学生的语言知识和技能,同时也要关注学生情感态度的发展,即要点燃学生阅读的兴趣,让英语悦读走进学生的内心深处。

下面是店铺带来的有趣的长篇英语故事阅读，欢迎阅读! 有趣的长篇英语故事阅读篇一倒霉的兔子Within the memory of the youngest child there was a family of rabbits who lived near a pack of wolves. The wolves announced that they did not like the way the rabbits were living. (The wolves were crazy about the way they themselves were living, because it was the only way to live.) One night several wolves were killed in an earthquake and this was blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that rabbits pound on the ground with their hind legs and cause earthquakes. On another night one of the wolves was killed by a bolt of lightning and this was also blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that lettuce-eaters cause lightning. The wolves threatened to civilize the rabbits if they didn't behave, and the rabbits decided to run away to a desert island. But the other animals, who lived at a great distance, shamed them, saying, "You must stay where you are and be brave. This is no world for escapists. If the wolves attack you, we will come to your aid, in all probability." So the rabbits continued to live near the wolves and one day there was a terrible flood which drowned a great many wolves. This was blamed on the rabbits, for it is well known that carrot-nibblers with long ears cause floods. The wolves descended on the rabbits, for their own good, and imprisoned them in a dark cave, for their own protection.When nothing was heard about the rabbits for some weeks, the other animals demanded to know what had happened tothem. The wolves replied that the rabbits had been eaten and since they had been eaten the affair was a purely internal matter. But the other animals warned that they might possibly unite against the wolves unless some reason was given for the destruction of rabbits. So the wolves gave them one. "They were trying to escape," said the wolves, "and, as you know, this is no world for escapists."翻译：在最小的孩子还记得的那个时候，在狼群的附近居住着兔子一家。

英语长篇阅读文章对于语言学习者而言,阅读是语言输入的重要方式。

阅读策略是语言学习者为了提高阅读理解而采取的技巧和方法。

下面是店铺带来的英语长篇阅读文章，欢迎阅读!英语长篇阅读文章1科技与自然Technology that imitates natureBiomimetics: Engineers are increasingly taking a leaf out of nature's book when looking for solutions to design problems AFTER taking his dog for a walk one day in the early 1940s, George de Mestral, a Swiss inventor, became curious about the seeds of the burdock plant that had attached themselves to his clothes and to the dog's fur. Under a microscope, he looked closely at the hook-and-loop system that the seeds have evolved to hitchhike on passing animals and aid pollination, and he realised that the same approach could be used to join other things together. The result was Velcr a product that was arguably more than three billion years in the making, since that is how long the natural mechanism that inspired it took to evolve.Velcro is probably the most famous and certainly the most successful example of bio logical mimicry, or “biomimetics”. In fields from robotics to materials science, technologists are increasingly borrowing ideas from nature, and with good reason: nature's designs have, by definition, stood the test of time, so it would be foolish to ignore them. Yet transplanting natural designs into man-made technologies is still a hit-or-miss affair.Engineers depend on biologists to discover interesting mechanisms for them to exploit, says Julian Vincent, the director of the Centre for Biomimetic and Natural Technologies at theUniversity of Bath in England. So he and his colleagues have been working on a scheme to enable engineers to bypass the biologists and tap into nature's ingenuity directly, via a database of “biological patents”. The idea is that this database will let anyone search through a wide range of biological mechanisms and properties to find natural solutions to technological problems.How not to reinvent the wheelSurely human intellect, and the deliberate application of design knowledge, can devise better mechanisms than the mindless, random process of evolution? Far from it. Over billions of years of trial and error, nature has devised effective solutions to all sorts of complicated real-world problems. Take the slippery task of controlling a submersible vehicle, for example. Using propellers, it is incredibly difficult to make refined movements. But Nekton Research, a company based in Durham, North Carolina, has developed a robot fish called Madeleine that manoeuvres using fins instead.In some cases, engineers can spend decades inventing and perfecting a new technology, only to discover that nature beat them to it. The Venus flower basket, for example, a kind of deep-sea sponge, has spiny skeletal outgrowths that are remarkably similar, both in appearance and optical properties, to commercial optical fibres, notes Joanna Aizenberg, a researcher at Lucent Technology's Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. And sometimes the systems found in nature can make even the most advanced technologies look primitive by comparison, she says.The skeletons of brittlestars, which are sea creatures related to starfish and sea urchins, contain thousands of tiny lenses that collectively form a single, distributed eye. This enables brittlestarsto escape predators and distinguish between night and day. Besides having unusual optical properties and being very small—each is just one-twentieth of a millimetre in diameter—the lenses have another trick of particular relevance to micro-optical systems. Although the lenses are fixed in shape, they are connected via a network of fluid-filled channels, containing a light-absorbing pigment. The creature can vary the contrast of the lenses by controlling this fluid. The same idea can be applied in man-made lenses, says Dr Aiz enberg. “These are made from silicon and so cannot change their properties,” she says. But by copying the brittlestar's fluidic system, she has been able to make biomimetic lens arrays with the same flexibility.Another demonstration of the power of biomimetics comes from the gecko. This lizard's ability to walk up walls and along ceilings is of much interest, and not only to fans of Spider-Man. Two groups of researchers, one led by Andre Geim at Manchester University and the other by Ron Fearing at the University of California, Berkeley, have independently developed ways to copy the gecko's ability to cling to walls. The secret of the gecko's success lies in the tiny hair-like structures, called setae, that cover its feet. Instead of secreting a sticky substance, as you might expect, they owe their adhesive properties to incredibly weak intermolecular attractive forces. These van der Waals forces, as they are known, which exist between any two adjacent objects, arise between the setae and the wall to which the gecko is clinging. Normally such forces are negligible, but the setae, with their spatula-like tips, maximise the surface area in contact with the wall. The weak forces, multiplied across thousands of setae, are then sufficient to hold the lizard's weight.Both the British and American teams have shown that theintricate design of these microscopic setae can be reproduced using synthetic materials. Dr Geim calls the result “gecko tape”. The technology is still some years away from commercialisation, says Thomas Kenny of Stanford University, who is a member of Dr Fearing's group. But when it does reach the market, rather than being used to make wall-crawling gloves, it will probably be used as an alternative to Velcro, or in sticking plasters. Indeed, says Dr Kenny, it could be particularly useful in medical applications where chemical adhesives cannot be used.While it is far from obvious that geckos' feet could inspire a new kind of sticking plaster, there are some fields—such as robotics—in which borrowing designs from nature is self-evidently the sensible thing to do. The next generation of planetary exploration vehicles being designed by America's space agency, NASA, for example, will have legs rather than wheels. That is because legs can get you places that wheels cannot, says Dr Kenny. Wheels work well on flat surfaces, but are much less efficient on uneven terrain. Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Centre in Mountain View, California, are evaluating an eight-legged walking robot modelled on a scorpion, and America's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding research into four-legged robot dogs, with a view to applying the technology on the battlefield.Having legs is only half the story—it's how you control them that counts, says Joseph Ayers, a biologist and neurophysiologist at Northeastern University, Massachusetts. He has spent recent years developing a biomimetic robotic lobster that does not just look like a lobster but actually emulates parts of a lobster's nervous system to control its walking behaviour. The control system of the scorpion robot, which is being developed by NASAin conjunction with the University of Bremen in Germany, is also biologically inspired. Meanwhile, a Finnish technology firm, Plustech, has developed a six-legged tractor for use in forestry. Clambering over fallen logs and up steep hills, it can cross terrain that would be impassable in a wheeled vehicle.Other examples of biomimetics abound: Autotype, a materials firm, has developed a plastic film based on the complex microstructures found in moth eyes, which have evolved to collect as much light as possible without reflection. When applied to the screen of a mobile phone, the film reduces reflections and improves readability, and improves battery life since there is less need to illuminate the screen. Researchers at the University of Florida, meanwhile, have devised a coating inspired by the rough, bristly skin of sharks. It can be applied to the hulls of ships and submarines to prevent algae and barnacles from attaching themselves. At Penn State University, engineers have designed aircraft wings that can change shape in different phases of flight, just as birds' wings do. And Dr Vincent has devised a smart fabric, inspired by the way in which pine cones open and close depending on the humidity, that could be used to make clothing that adjusts to changing body temperatures and keeps the wearer cool.From hit-and-miss to point-and-clickYet despite all these successes, biomimetics still depends far too heavily on serendipity, says Dr Vincent. He estimates that there is only a 10% overlap between biological and technological mechanisms used to solve particular problems. In other words, there is still an enormous number of potentially useful mechanisms that have yet to be exploited. The problem is that the engineers looking for solutions depend on biologists havingalready found them—and the two groups move in different circles and speak very different languages. A natural mechanism or property must first be discovered by biologists, described in technological terms, and then picked up by an engineer who recognises its potential.This process is entirely the wrong way round, says Dr Vincent. “To be effective, biomimetics should be providing examples of suitable technologies from biology which fulfil the requirements of a particular engineering problem,” he explains. That is why he and his colleagues, with funding from Britain's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, have spent the past three years building a database of biological tricks which engineers will be able to access to find natural solutions to their design problems. A search of the database with the keyword “propulsion”, for example, produces a range of propulsion mechanisms used by jellyfish, frogs and crustaceans.The database can also be queried using a technique developed in Russia, known as the theory of inventive problem solving, or TRIZ. In essence, this is a set of rules that breaks down a problem into smaller parts, and those parts into particular functions that must be performed by components of the solution. Usually these functions are compared against a database of engineering patents, but Dr Vincent's team have substituted their database of “biological patents” instead. Thes e are not patents in the conventional sense, of course, since the information will be available for use by anyone. By calling biomimetic tricks “biological patents”, the researchers are just emphasising that nature is, in effect, the patent holder.One way to use the system is to characterise an engineering problem in the form of a list of desirable features that thesolution ought to have, and another list of undesirable features that it ought to avoid. The database is then searched for any biological patents that meet those criteria. So, for example, searching for a means of defying gravity might produce a number of possible solutions taken from different flying creatures but described in engineering terms. “If you want flight, you don't copy a bird, but you do copy the use of wings and aerofoils,” says Dr Vincent.He hopes that the database will store more than just blueprints for biological mechanisms that can be replicated using technology. Biomimetics can help with software, as well as hardware, as the robolobster built by Dr Ayers demonstrates. Its physical design and control systems are both biologically inspired. Most current robots, in contrast, are deterministically programmed. When building a robot, the designers must anticipate every contingency of the robot's environment and tell it how to respond in each case. Animal models, however, provide a plethora of proven solutions to real-world problems that could be useful in all sorts of applications. “The set of behavioural acts that a lobster goes through when searching for food is exactly what one would want a robot to do to search for underwater mines,” says Dr Ayers. It took nature millions of years of trial and error to evolve these behaviours, he says, so it would be silly not to take advantage of them.Although Dr Vincent's database will not be capable of providing such specific results as control algorithms, it could help to identify natural systems and behaviours that might be useful to engineers. But it is still early days. So far the database contains only 2,500 patents. To make it really useful, Dr Vincent wants to collect ten times as many, a task for which he intends to ask theonline community for help. Building a repository of nature's cleverest designs, he hopes, will eventually make it easier and quicker for engineers to steal and reuse them.英语长篇阅读文章2 Lessons from a feminist paradise on Equal Pay DayOn the surface, Sweden appears to be a feminist paradise. Look at any global survey of gender equity and Sweden will be near the top. Family-friendly policies are its norm —with 16 months of paid parental leave, special protections for part-time workers, and state-subsidized preschools where, according to a government website, “gender-awareness education is increasingly common.” Due to an u nofficial quota system, women hold 45 percent of positions in the Swedish parliament. They have enjoyed the protection of government agencies with titles like the Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality and the Secretariat of Gender Research. So why are American women so far ahead of their Swedish counterparts in breaking through the glass ceiling?In a 2012 report, the World Economic Forum found that when it comes to closing the gender gap in “economic participation and opportunity,” the United States is ahead of not only Sweden but also Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Sweden’s rank in the report can largely be explained by its political quota system. Though the United States has fewer women in the workforce (68 percent compared to Sweden’s 77 percent), American women who choose to be employed are far more likely to work full-time and to hold high-level jobs as managers or professionals. Compared to their European counterparts, they own more businesses, launch more start start-ups, and more often work in traditionallymale fields. As for breaking the glass ceiling in business, American women are well in the lead, as the chart below shows.What explains the American advantage? How can it be that societies like Sweden, where gender equity is relentlessly pursued and enforced, have fewer female managers, executives, professionals, and business owners than the laissez-faire United States? A new study by Cornell economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn gives an explanation.Generous parental leave policies and readily available part-time options have unintended consequences: instead of strengthening women’s attachment to the workplace, they appear to weaken it. In addition to a 16-month leave, a Swedish parent has the right to work six hours a day (for a reduced salary) until his or her child is eight years old. Mothers are far more likely than fathers to take advantage of this law. But extended leaves and part-time employment are known to be harmful to careers — for both genders. And with women a second factor comes into play: most seem to enjoy the flex-time arrangement (once known as the “mommy track”) and never find their way back to full-time or high-level employment. In sum: generous family-friendly policies do keep more women in the labor market, but they also tend to diminish their careers.According to Blau and Kahn, Swedish-style paternal leave policies and flex-time arrangements pose a second threat to women’s progress: they make employers wary of hiring wom en for full-time positions at all. Offering a job to a man is the safer bet. He is far less likely to take a year of parental leave and then return on a reduced work schedule for the next eight years.I became aware of the trials of career-focused European women a few years ago when I met a post-doctoral student fromGermany who was then a visiting fellow at Johns Hopkins. She was astonished by the professional possibilities afforded to young American women. Her best hope in Germany was a government job ––prospects for women in the private sector were dim. “In Germany,” she told me, “we have all the benefits, but employers don’t want to hire us.”Swedish economists Magnus Henrekson and Mikael Stenkula addressed the following question in their 2009 study: why are there so few female top executives in the European egalitarian welfare states? Their answer: “Broad-based welfare-state policies impede women’s representation in elite competitive positions.”It is tempting to declare the Swedish policies regressive and hail the American system as superior. But that would be shortsighted. The Swedes can certainly take a lesson from the United States and look for ways to clear a path for their high-octane female careerists. But most women are not committed careerists. When the Pew Research Center recently asked American parents to identify their "ideal" life arrangement, 47 percent of mothers said they would prefer to work part-time and 20 percent said they would prefer not to work at all. Fathers answered differently: 75 percent preferred full-time work. Some version of the Swedish system might work well for a majority of American parents, but the United States is unlikely to fully embrace the Swedish model. Still, we can learn from their experience.Despite its failure to shatter the glass ceiling, Sweden has one of the most powerful and innovative economies in the world. In its 2011-2012 survey, the World Economic Forum ranked Sweden as the world’s third most competitive economy; the UnitedStates came in fifth. Sweden, dubbed the "rockstar of the recovery" in the Washington Post, also leads the world in life satisfaction and happiness. It is a society well worth studying, and its efforts to conquer the gender gap impart a vital lesson —though not the lesson the Swedes had in mind.Sweden has gone farther than any nation on earth to integrate the sexes and to offer women the same opportunities and freedoms as men. For decades, these descendants of the Vikings have been trying to show the world that the right mix of enlightened policy, consciousness raising, and non-sexist child rearing would close the gender divide once and for all. Yet the divide persists.A 2012 press release from Statistics Sweden bears the title “Gender Equality in Sweden Treading Water” and notes: The total income from employment for all ages is lower for women than for men.One in three employed women and one in ten employed men work part-time.Women’s working time is influenced by the number and age of their children, but men’s working time is not affected by these factors.Of all employees, only 13 percent of the women and 12 percent of the men have occupations with an even distribution of the sexes.Confronted with such facts, some Swedish activists and legislators are demanding more extreme and far-reaching measures, such as replacing male and female pronouns with a neutral alternative and monitoring children more closely to correct them when they gravitate toward gendered play. When it came to light last year that mothers, far more than fathers, choseto stay home from work to care for their sick toddlers, Ulf Kristersson, minister of social security, quickly commissioned a study to determine the causes of and possible cures for this disturbing state of affairs.I have another suggestion for Kristersson and his compatriots: acknowledge the results of your own 40-year experiment. The sexes are not interchangeable. When Catherine Hakim, a sociologist at the London School of Economics, studied the preferences of women and men in Western Europe, her results matched those of the aforementioned Pew study. Women, far more than men, give priority to domestic life. The Swedes should consider the possibility that the current division of labor is not an artifact of sexism, but the triumph of liberated preference.In the 1940s, the American playwright, congresswoman, and conservative feminist Clare Boothe Luce made a prediction about what would happen to men and women under conditions of freedom:It is time to leave the question of the role of women in society up to Mother Nature — a difficult lady to fool. You have only to give women the same opportunities as men, and you will soon find out what is or is not in their nature. What is in women’s nature to do they will do, and you won’t be able to stop them. But you will also find, and so will they, that what is not in their nature, even if they are given every opportunity, they will not do, and you won’t be able to make them do it.In Luce’s day, sex-role stereotypes still powerfully limited women’s choices. More than half a century later, women in the Western democracies enjoy the equality of opportunity of which she spoke. Nowhere is this more true than Sweden. And althoughit was not the Swedes’ intention, they have demonstrated to the world what the sexes will and will not do when offered the same opportunities.Today is Equal Pay Day. But as most feminists know by now, the wage gap is largely the result of women’s vocational choices and how they prefer to balance home and family. To close the gap, it won’t be e nough to change society or reform the workplace ––it is women’s elemental preferences that will have to change. But look to Sweden: women’s preferences remain the same.Not only feminists, but also liberal and conservative policymakers should pay attentio n. Sweden is not the “tax and spend” welfare state of old ––while the rest of the world is floundering in debt, Sweden (along with its Nordic neighbors) has been downsizing, reforming entitlements, and balancing its books. The budget deficit in Sweden is about 0.2 percent of its GDP; in the United States, it’s 7 percent. But Sweden’s generous family-friendly policies remain in place. The practical, problem-solving Swedes have judged them to be a good investment. They may be right.Swedish family policies, by accommodating women’s preferences so effectively, are reducing the number of women in elite competitive positions. The Swedes will find this paradoxical and try to find solutions. Let us hope these do not include banning gender pronouns, policing childr en’s play, implementing more gender quotas, or treating women’s special attachment to home and family as a social injustice. Most mothers do not aspire to elite, competitive full-time positions: the Swedish policies have given them the freedom and opportunity to live the lives they prefer. Americans should lookpast the gender rhetoric and consider what these Scandinavians have achieved. On their way to creating a feminist paradise, the Swedes have inadvertently created a haven for normal mortals.英语长篇阅读文章3科学家告诉你：这样学才记得牢The older we get, the harder it seems to remember names, dates, facts of all kinds. It takes longer to retrieve the information we want, and it often pops right up a few minutes or hours later when we are thinking about something else. The experts say that keeping your mind sharp with games like Sudoku and crossword puzzles slows the aging process, and that may be true, but we found three other things you can do to sharpen your memory.随着年龄的增长，我们似乎越来越记不住人名、日期、还有各种事情。

英语四级长篇阅读练习题及答案解析四级长篇阅读练习题：Promote Learning and Skills for Young People and AdultsA) This goal places the emphasis on the learning needs of young people and adults in the context of lifelong learning.It calls for fair access to learning programs that are appropriate，and mentions life skills particularly.B)Education is about giving people the opportunity to develop their potential，their personality and their strengths.This does not merely mean learning new knowledge，but also developing abilities to make the most of life.These are called life skills——including the inner capacities and the practical skills we need.C)Many of the inner capacities——often known as psych0—social skills——cannot be taught as subjects.They are not the same as academic or technical learnin9.They must rather be modeled and promoted as part of learning，and in particular by teachers.These skills have to do with the way we behave—towards other people，towards ourselves，towards the challenges and problems of life.They include skills in communicating，in making decisions and solving problems，in negotiating and expressing ourselves，in thinking critically and understanding our feelings.D)More practical life skills are the kinds of manual skills we need for the physical tasks we face.Some would include vocational skills under the heading of life skills——the ability to lay bricks.sew clothes，catch fish or repair a motorbike.These are skills by which people may earn their livelihood and which are often available to young people leaving school.In fact，very often young people learn psycho-social skills as they learn more practical skills.Learning vocational skills can be a strategy for acquiring both practical and psycho-social skills.E)We need to increase our life skills at every stage of life，so learning them may be part of early child—hood education.of primary and secondary education and of adult learning groups.Life skills can be put into the categories that the Jacques Delors report suggested;it spoke of four pillars of education，which correspond to certain kinds of life skills —Learning to know：Thinking abilities：such as problem—solving，critical thinking，decision making，understanding consequences.Learning to be：Personal abilities：such as managing stress and feelings，self-awareness，self-confidence.Learning to live together：Social abilities：such as communication，negotiation，teamwork.Learning to do： Manual skills：practicing know-how required for work and tasks.F)In todays world all these skills are necessary, in order to face rapid change in society.This means that it is important to know how to go on learning as we require new skills for life and work.In addition，we need to know how to cope with the flood of information and turn it in to useful knowledge.We also need to learn how to handle change in society and in our own lives.G)Life skills are both concrete and abstract—practical skills can be learned directly, as a subject.For example, a learner can take a course in laying bricks and learn that skill.Other life skills，such asself-confidence，self-esteem，and skills for relating to others or thinking critically cannot be taught in such direct ways.They should be part of any learning process，where teachers or instructors are concerned that learners should not just learn about subjects，but learn how to cope with life and make the most of their potential.H)So these life skills may be learnt when learning other things.For example：Learning literacy may have a big impact on self-esteem，on critical thinking or on communication skills;Learning practical skills s ach as drivin9，healthcare or tailoring may increase self-confidence，teach problem—solving processes or help in understanding consequences.I) Whether this is true depends on the way of teachin9—what kinds of thinkin9，relationship building and communication the teacher or facilitator models themselves and promotes among the learners.It would require measuring the individual and collective progress in making the most of learning and of life，or assessing how far human potential is being realized，or estimating how well people cope with change.It is easier to measure the development of practical skills，for instance by counting the number of students who register for vocational skills courses.However, this still may not tell us how effectively these skills are being used.J)The psych0.social skills cannot easily be measured by tests and scores，but become visible in Chang behavior.Progress in this area has often been noted by teachers on reports which they make to the parentsof their pupils.The teachers experience of life，of teaching and of what can be expected from education in the broadest sense serve as a standard by which the growth and development of individuals can be assessed to some extent.This kind of assessment is individual and may never appear in international tables and charts.K)The current challenges relate to these difficulties：We need to recognize the importance of life skillsboth practical and psycho-socialas part of education which leads to the full development of human potential and to the development of society.The links between psycho—social skills and practical skills must be more clearly spelled out，so that educators can promote both together and find effective ways to do this.Since life skills are taught as part of a wide range of subjects，teachers need to have training in how to put them across and how to monitor learnersgrowth in these areas.In designing curricula and syllabuses for academic subjects，there must be a balance between content teaching and attention to the accompanying life skills.A more conscious and deliberate effort to promote life skills will enable learners to become more active citizens in the life of society.L) Governments should recognize and actively advocate for the transformational role of education in realizing human potential and in socio—economic development.Ensure that curricula and syllabuses address life skills and give learners the opportunity to make real-life applications of knowledge，skills and attitudes.Show how life skills of all kinds apply in the world of work，for example，negotiating and communication skills，as well practical skills.Through initial andin-service teacher training，increase the use of active and participatory learning/teaching approaches.Examine and adapt the processes and content of education so that there is a balance between academic input and life skills development.Make sure that education inspectors look not only for academic progress through teaching and learning，but also progress in the communication， modeling and application of life skills.Advocate for the links between primary and(early)secondary education because learning life skills needs eight or nine years and recognize that the prospect of effective secondary education is an incentive to children，and their parents，to complete primary education successfully.M)Funding agencies should support research，exchange anddebate.nationally and regionally,on ways of strengthening life skills education.Support innovative(创新的)teacher training in order to combine life skills promotion into subjects across the curriculum and as a fundamental part of what school and education are about.Recognize the links between primary and secondary education in ensuring that children develop strong life skills.Support，therefore，the early years of secondary education as part basic education.N) As support to governments and in cooperation with other international agencies，UNESC0：Works to define life skills better and clarify what it means to teach and learn them.Assists education. policy makers and teachers to develop and use a life skills approach to education.Advocates for the links between a life skills approach to education and broader society and human development.46.The recognition of life skills as part of education will promote the development of human potential and society.47.The abilities to make the most of life consist of the inner capacities and the practical skills.48.The progress in psycho—social skills can be measured by changed behavior.ernments should examine and adapt the processes and content of education so as to balance the academic input and life skills development.50.According to Jacques Delors，four pillars of education include learning to know, learning to be， learning to live together and learning to do.51.The funding agencies should link primary education and secondary education to make sure that children develop strong life skills.52.Learning literacy may exert an influence on self-esteem，critical thinking and communication skills.53.One function of UNESCO is to help educational policy makers and teachers to develop and use a life skills approach to education.54.Learning vocational skills can be an approach to acquiring both practical and psycho—social skills.55.The abilities to manage stress and feelings，self-awareness，self-confidence are personal abilities.答案解析：【解析】J)。

经典长篇英语美文欣赏长篇带翻译多阅读一些英语美文，对于我们英语阅读能力的提高会有很大的帮助，今天店铺在这里为大家分享一些经典长篇英语美文欣赏，希望大家会喜欢这些英语美文!经典长篇英语美文欣赏篇一Genius Sacrificed for Failure牺牲英才得庸才Wliilam N. Brown威廉·N.布朗During my youth in America’s Appalachian mountains, I learned that farmers preferred sonsover daughters，largely because boys were better at heavy farm labor (though what boysanywhere could best the tireless Hui’an girls in the fields of Fujian!)我在美国的阿巴拉契亚山区度过青少年时代时，发现那里的农民重男轻女，多半因为男子更能胜任重体力农活。

当然，如果要同福建省惠安县农田里的妇女相比，她们那份不歇不竭的能耐是任何地方的男子都自叹弗如的!With only 3% of Americans in agriculture today，brain has supplanted brawn, yet culturalpreferences, like bad habits，are easier to make than break. But history warns repeatedly of thetragic cost of dismissing too casually the gifts of the so-called weaker sex.今天在美国，脑力已经取代了体力，只有3%的美国人在从事农业。

但文化上的习俗正如陋规，形成容易冲破难。

英语四级长篇阅读匹配试题及答案英语四级长篇阅读匹配试题及答案 1There are three kinds of goals: short-term,medium-range and long-term goals. Short-range goals are those that usually deal with current activities,which we can apply on a daily basis.Such goals can be achieved in a week or less,or two weeks,or possible months.It should be remembered that just as a building is no stronger than its foundation ,out long-term goals cannot amount to very munch without the achievement of solid short-term goals.Upon completing our short-term goals,we should date the occasion and then add new short-term goals that will build on those that have been completed. The intermediate goals bukld on the foundation of the short-range goals.They might deal with just one term of school or the entire school year,or they could even extend for several years.Any time you move a step at a time,you should never allow yourself to become discouraged or overwhelmed. As you complete each step,you will enforce the belief in your ability to grow adn succeed.And as your list of completion dates grow,your motivation and desire will increase.Long-range goals may be related to our dreams of the future. They might cover five years or more. Life is not a static thing.We should never allow a long-term goal to limit us or our course of action. 1.Our long-term goals mean a lot______.A.if we complete our short-range goalsB.if we cannot reach solid short-term goalsC.if we write down the datesD.if we put forward some plans2.New short-term goals are bulid upon______.A.two yearsB.long-term goalsC.current activitiesD.the goals that have been completed3.When we complete each step of our goals ,______.A.we will win final successB.we are overwhelmedC.we should build up confidence of successD.we should strong desire for setting new goals 4.Once our goals are drawn up,_______.A.we should stick to them until we complete themB.we may change our goals as we have new ideas and opportunitiesC.we had better wait for the exciting news of successD.we have made great decision5.It is implied but not stated in the passage that ______.A.those who habe long-term goals will succeedB.writing down the dates may discourage youC.the goal is only a guide for us to reach our desinationD.every should have a goal答案：adcbc英语四级长篇阅读匹配试题及答案 2If the population of the earth goes on increasing at its present rate, there will eventually not be enough resources left to sustain life on the planet.By the middle of the 21st century,if present trends continue, we will have used up all the oil that drives our cars,for example.Even if scientists develop new ways of feeding the human race,the crowded conditions on earth will make it necessary for lus to look for open space somewhere else. But none of the other planets in our solar system are capable of supporting life at present. One possible solution to the problem, however,has recently been suggested by American scientist, Professor Carl Sagan. Sagan believes that before the earths resources are compleetely exhausted it will be possible to change the atmophere of Venus and so create a new world almost as large as earth itself. The difficult is that Venus is much hotter than the earth and there is only a tiny amount of water there. Sagan proposes that algae organisms that can live in extremely hot or cold atmospheres and at the same time produce oxygen,should be bred in condition similar to those on Venus.As soon as this has been done, the algae will be placed in small rockets. Spaceship will then fly to Venus and fire the rockets into the atmosphere .In a fairly short time, the alge will break down the carbon dioxide into oxygen andcarbon. When the algae have done theri work, the atmosphere will become cooler,but befor man can set foot on Venus it will be neccessary for the oxygen to produce rain. The surface of the planet will still be too hot for man to land on it but the rain will eventually fall and in a few years something like earth will be reproduced on Venus. -1.Inte long run, the most insoluble problem caused by population growth on earth will probably be the lack of ______.a.foodb.oilc.spaced.resources2.Carl Sagan believes that Venus might be colonized from earth because _____ a.it might be possible to change its atmosphere b.its atmosphere is the same as the earthsc.there is a good supply of water on Venusd.the days on Venus are long enough3.On Venus there is a lot of ________.a.waterb.carbon dioxidec.carbon monoxided.oxygen4.Algae are plants that can____.a.live in very hot temperaturesb.live in very cold temperaturesc.manufacture oxygend.all of the above5. Man can land on Venus only when_______. a.the algae have done their work -b.the atmosphere becomes coolerc.thereis oxygend.it rains there答案：cabdd英语四级长篇阅读匹配试题及答案 3Like a needle climbing up a bathroom scale, the number keeps rising. In 1991, 15% of Americans were obese(肥胖的); by 1999, that proportion had grown to 27%. Youngsters, who should have age and activity on their side, are growing larger as well: 19% of Americans under 17 are obese. Waistbands have been popping in other western countries too, as physical activity has declined and diets have expanded. By and large, people in the rich world seem to have lost the fight against flab(松弛).Meanwhile, poorer nations have enjoyed some success in their battles against malnutrition and famine. But, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, it is more a case of being out of the frying pan and into the fire. The most striking example actually in the poor world comes from the Pacific islands, home of the world’s most obese communities. In 1966, 14% of the men on this island were obese while 100% of men under the age of 30 in 1996 were obese.This increase in weight has been uneven as well as fast. As a result, undernourished and over-nourished people frequently live cheek by jowl(面颊). The mix can even occur within a single household. A study of families in Indonesia found that nearly 10% contained both the hungry and the fat. This is a mysterious phenomenon, but might have something to do with people of different ages being given different amounts of food to eat.The prospect of heading off these problems is bleak. In many affected countries there are cultural factorsto contend with, such as an emphasis on eating large meals together, or on food as a form. ofhospitality.Moreover, there is a good measure of disbelief on the part of policymakers that such a problem Could existin their countries. Add to that reluctance on the part of governments to spend resources on promoting dietand exercise while starvation is still a real threat, and the result is a recipe for inaction. Unless something is done soon, it might not be possible to turn the clock back.英语四级阅读模拟试题：Choose correct answers to the question:1.The first sentence of the passage most probably implies that ______.A.many Americans are obsessed with the rising temperature in their bathroomB.more people are overweighed in the United StatesC.people are doing more physical exercises with the help of scalesD.youngsters become taller and healthier thanks to more activities2.As physical exercise declines and diet expands, ______.A.other western countries has been defeated by fatB.obesity has become an epidemic(流行病)of the rich worldC.waistbands begin to be popular in other western countriesD.western countries can no longer fight against obesity3.Which is NOT the point of the example of the Pacific Islands?A.The poor community has shaken off poverty and people are well-fed now.B.Obesity is becoming a problem in the developing world too.C.Excessive weight increase will cause no less harm than the food shortage.D.The problem of overweight emerges very fast.4.Of tackling obesity in the poor world, we can learn from the passage that____A.the matter is so complex as to go beyond our capacityB.no matter what we do, the prospect will always be bleakC.it is starvation, the real threat, that needs to be solvedD.we should take immediate actions before it becomes incurable5.What is the main idea of this passage?A.Obesity is now a global problem that needs tackling.B.The weights increase fast throughout the whole world.C.Obesity and starvation are two main problems in the poor world.D.Obesity has shifted from the rich world to the poor world.英语四级阅读参考答案1.[B] 推理判断题。

英语四级阅读长篇阅读练习1四级阅读长篇阅读练习1：A University Degree No Longer Confers Financial Securitylions of school-leavers in the rich world are about to bid a tearful goodbye to their parents and start a new life at university. Some are inspired by a pure love of learning. But most also believe that spending three or four years at university--and accumulating huge debts in the process--will boost their chances of landing a well-paid and secure job.B.Their elders have always told them that education is the best way to equip themselves to thrive in a globalised world. Blue-collar workers will see their jobs outsourced and automated, the familiar argument goes. School dropouts will have to cope with a life of cash-strapped (资金紧张的) insecurity. But the graduate elite will have the world at its feet. There is some evidence to support this view. A recent study from Georgetown Universitys Centre on Education and the Workforce argues that"obtaining a post-secondary credential ( 证书) is almost always worth it." Educational qualifications are tightly correlated with earnings: an American with a professional degree can expect to pocket $3.6m over a lifetime; one with merely a high- school diploma can expect only $1.3m. The gap between more- and less-educated earners may be widening. A study in 2002 found that someone with a bachelors degree could expect to earn75% more over a lifetime than someone with only a high-school diploma. Today the disparity is even greater.C.But is the past a reliable guide to the future? Or are we at the beginning of a new phase in the relationship between jobs and education? There are good reasons for thinking that old patterns are about to change--and that the current recession-driven downturn (衰退) in the demand for Western graduates will morph (改变) into something structural. The strong wind of creative destruction that has shaken so manyblue-collar workers over the past few decades is beginning to shake the cognitive elite as well.D.The supply of university graduates is increasing rapidly. The Chronicle of Higher Education calculates that between 1990 and 2007 the number of students going to university increased by 22% in North America, 74% in Europe, 144% in Latin America and 203% in Asia. In 2007 150m people attended university around the world, including 70m in Asia. Emerging economies—specially China--are pouring resources into building universities that can compete with the elite of America and Europe. They are also producing professional- services firms snch as Tata Consulting Services and Infosys that take fresh graduates and turn them into world-class computer programmers and consultants. The best and the brightest of the rich world must increasingly compete with the best and the brightest from poorer countries who are willing to work harder for less money.E. At the same time, the demand for educated labor is being reconfigured (重新配置) by technology, in much the same way that the demand for agricultural labor was reconfigured in the 19th century andthat for factory labor in the 20th. Computers can not only perform repetitive mental tasks much faster than human beings. They can also empower amateurs to do what professionals once did: why hire aflesh-and-blood accountant to complete your tax return when Turbotax (a software package ) will do the job at a fraction of the cost? And the variety of jobs that computers can do is multiplying as programmers teach them to deal with tone and linguistic ambiguity.F.Several economists, including Paul Krugman, have begun to argue that post-industrial societies will be characterized not by a relentless rise in demand for the educated but by a great "hollowing out", as mid-level jobs are destroyed by smart machines and high-level job growth slows. David Autor, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), points out that the main effect of automation in the computer era is not that it destroys blue-collar jobs but that it destroys any job that can be reduced to a routine. Alan Blinder of Princeton University, argues that the jobs graduates have traditionally performed are if anything more "offshorable" than low-wage ones. A plumber or lorry-drivers job cannot be outsourced to India. A computer programmers can.G. A university education is still a prerequisite for entering some of the great industries, such as medicine, law and academia (学术界), that provide secure and well-paying jobs. Over the 20th century these industries did a wonderful job of raising barriers to entry--sometimes for good reasons (nobody wants to be operated on by a barber) and sometimes for self-interested ones. But these industries are beginning to bend the roles. Newspapers are fighting a losing battle with the blogosphere. Universities are replacing tenure-track professors with non-tenured staff. Law firms are contracting out routine work such as"discovery"(digging up documents relevant to a lawsuit) to computerized-search specialists such as Blackstone Discovery. Even doctors are threatened, as patients find advice online and treatment in Walmarts new health centers.H.Thomas Malone of MIT argues that these changes--automation, globalizafion and deregulation--may be part of a bigger change: the application of the division of labor to brain-work. Adam Smiths factory managers broke the production of pins into 18 components. In the same way, companies are increasingly breaking the production of brain-work into ever tinier slices. TopCoder chops up IT projects into bite-sized chunks and then serves them up to a worldwide workforce of freelance coders.I.These changes will undoubtedly improve the productivity ofbrain-workers. They will allow consumers to sidestep (规避 ) the professional industries that have extracted high rents for their services. And they will empower many brain-workers to focus on what they are best at and contract out more tedious tasks to others. But the reconfiguration of brain-work will also make life far less cozy and predictable for the next generation of graduates.46. The creative destruction that has happened to blue-collar workers in the past also starts to affect the cognitive elite.47. For the next generation of graduates, life will be far less comfortable and predictable with brain-work reconfigured.48. After computers are taught by programmers to deal with tone and linguistic ambiguity, the variety of jobs they can do will increase dramatically.49. Most school-leavers believe that, despite the huge debts they owe, going to university will increase their chances of getting secure jobs with high salaries.50. Modern companies are more likely to break the production of intellectual work into ever tinier slices.51. A scholar of Princeton University claims that the jobs traditionally taken by graduates are more likely to be offshored than low-wage ones.52. The income gap between an American professional degree holder and an American high-school graduate shows income is closely related to educational qualifications.53. The changes in the division of brain-work will save consumers some high service fees the professional organizations charge.54. Some students have always been told that. to achieve success ina globalised world, it is most advisable to equip themselves with education.55. Emerging economies are providing a lot of resources to build universities to compete with the elite of America and Europe.【参考译文】大学文凭不再提供铁饭碗A.发达国家的数百万高中毕业生将要含泪告别他们的父母，开始全新的大学生活。

英语长篇文章带翻译阅读是现代人进行交际的一种形式，是获取信息和知识的重要途径。

下面是店铺带来的英语长篇文章带翻译，欢迎阅读!英语长篇文章带翻译1Is 0ffice Gossip Helpful or Hurtful办公室八卦是好还是坏Do you take part in office gossip? I don't like to think of myself as a gossip, but I have to admit I often do it In my turbulent industry，I justify my behavior -perhaps wrongly -by reasoning that gossip helps me get information and figure out what is going on.办公室里的八卦你会参加吗?我不想让人觉得我八卦，但我也承认我常会参与其中。

在我这个千变万化的行业中，我认为我的行为是合理的，理由是八卦可以帮我获得信息，弄清形势——这样想也许是错误的。

Amid a rise in office gossip，researchers are disagreeing over whether it is fundamentally good or bad. Some defend it as a way of building bonds among people and sharing essential information. But others hold that office gossip can be savage and destructive, as the New York Times reports. (At one company, , which has a strict no-gossip policy, gossiping about colleagues can become a firing offense.) 随着办公室八卦的兴起，研究人员对它到底是好还是坏也存在不同看法。

大学英语CET6长篇阅读训练题及答案高校英语CET6长篇阅读训练题及答案try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value，以下是我为大家搜寻整理的高校英语CET6长篇阅读训练题及答案，期望能给大家带来帮忙!更多精彩内容请准时关注我们应届毕业生考试网!Preparing for Computer DisastersA: Summary: When home office computers go down, many small businesses grind to a halt. Fortunately, taking steps to recover from disasters and minimize their effects is quite straightforward.B: Fires, power surges, and floods, theyre all facts of life. We read about them in the morning paper and see them on the evening news. We sympathize with the victims and commiserate over their bad luck. We also shake our heads at the digital consequencesmelted computers, system failures, destroyed data. Yet, somehow, many of us continue to live by that old mantra of denial: It wont happen to me. Well, the truth is, at some point youll probably have to deal with at least one disaster. Thats just how it goes, and in most aspects of our lives we do something about it. We buy insurance. We stow away provisions. We even make disaster plans and run drills. But for some reason, computer disaster recovery is a blind spot for many of us. It shouldnt be. Home computers contain some of our most important information, both business and personal, and making certain ourdata survives a disaster should be a priority. Moreover, even the smallest disaster can be a serious disruption. Personal computers have become an integral part of the smooth-running household. We use them to communicate, shop, and do homework, and theyre even more vital to home office users. When home office computers go down, many small businesses grind to a halt. Fortunately, taking steps to recover from disasters and minimize their effects is quite straightforward. With a good offsite storage plan and the right tools, you can bounce back quickly and easily from minor computer disasters. And, should a major calamity strike, you can rest assured your data is safe.Offsite Storage: Major DisastersC: House fires and floods are among the most devastating causes of personal computer destruction. Thats why a solid offsite backup and recovery plan is essential. Although many home users faithfully back up their hard drives, many would still lose all their data should their house flood our burn. Thats because they keep their backups in relatively close to their computers. Their backup disks might not be in the same room as their computerstucked away in a closet or even the garagebut theyre not nearly far enough away should a serious disaster strike. So, its important to back up your system to a removable medium and to store it elsewhere.D: There are many ways to approach offsite storage. It starts with choice of backup tools and storage medium. Disaster situations are stressful, and your recovery tools shouldnt add to that stress. They must be dependable and intuitive, making it easy to schedule regular backups and to retrieve files ina pinch. They must also be compatible with your choice of backup medium. Depending on your tools, you can back up to a variety of durable disk typesfrom CDs to Jaz drives to remote network servers. Although many of these storage media have high capacity, a backup tool with compression capabilities is a big plus, eliminating the inconvenience of multiple disks or large uploads.E: Once you select your tools and a suitable medium, you need to find a remote place to store your backups. The options are endless. However, no matter where you choose, be sure the site is secure, easily accessible, and a good distance away from your home. You may also want to consider using an Internet-based backup service. More and more service providers are offering storage space on their servers, and uploading files to a remote location has become an attractive alternative to conventional offsite storage. Of course, before using one of these services, make certain you completely trust the service provider and its security methods. Whatever you do, schedule backups regularly and store them far away from your home.Come What May: Handling the Garden Variety Computer CrisisF: Not all home computer damage results from physical disaster. Many less menacing problems can also hobble your PC or destroy your information. Systems crash, kids rearrange data, adults inadvertently delete files. Although these events might not seem calamitous, they can have serious implications. So, once again, its important to be prepared. As with physical disasters, regular backups are essential. However, some of these smaller issues require a response thats more nuanced thanwholesale backup and restoration. To deal with less-than-total disaster, your tool set must be both powerful and agile. For example, when a small number of files are compromised, you may want to retrieve those files alone. Meanwhile, if just your settings are affected, youll want a simple way to roll back to your preferred setup. Yet, should your operating system fail, youll need a way to boot your computer and perform large-scale recovery. Computer crises come in all shapes and sizes, and your backup and recovery tools must be flexible enough to meet each challenge.The Right Tools for the Right Job: Gearing up for DisasterG: When disaster strikes, the quality of your backup tools can make the difference between utter frustration and peace of mind. Symantec understands this and offers a range of top quality backup and recovery solutions. Norton GoBack is the perfect tool for random system crashes, failed installations, and inadvertent deletions. With this powerful and convenient solution, its simple to retrieve overwritten files or to bring your system back to its pre-crash state. Norton Ghost is a time-tested home office solution. Equipped to handlefull-scale backups, its also handy for cloning hard drives and facilitating system upgrades. A favorite choice for IT professionals, its the ideal tool for the burgeoning home office. You can buy Norton Ghost and Norton GoBack separately, or get them both when you purchase Norton System Works.H: Lifes disasters, large and small, often catch us by surprise. However, with a little planning and the right tools, you can reduce those disasters to bumps in the road. So, dontwait another day. Buy a good set of disaster recovery tools, set up an automatic backup schedule, and perform a dry run every now and again. Then, rest easy.1. You should take steps to recover from computer disasters so as to minimize their effects.2. For some reason, computer disaster recovery is always ignored by many of us.3. You can bounce back quickly and easily minor computer disasters with the help of a good offsite storage plan and the right tools.4. The most devastating causes of personal computer destruction includes house fires and floods.5. Its necessary for us to back up our systems to some transferable medium and to put it somewhere else.6. You should find a distant place to store your backups after selecting your tools and a suitable medium.7. Not only physical disaster can damage your computer.8. The backup and recovery tools must be flexible enough to deal with various computer crises.9. The quality of your backup tools determines whether you are frustrated or have a peaceful mind when disaster strikes.10. You should prepare for your computer disasters now and again.答案解析1. A依据题干中的信息词recover from computer disasters定位到本文的第一段。

英语长篇文章阅读众所周知，阅读作为人类汲取知识的主要手段和认知世界的主要途径之一，一度成为语文、外语等文科类学科学习的主要方式，而倍受关注和青睐。

下面是店铺带来的英语长篇文章阅读，欢迎阅读!英语长篇文章阅读1寒武纪大爆发动物王国出现Science and technologyThe Cambrian explosionKingdom comeChinese palaeontologists hope to explain the rise of the animalsAMONG the mysteries of evolution, one of the most profound is what exactly happened at the beginning of the Cambrian period.Before that period, which started 541m years ago and ran on for 56m years, life was a modest thing.Bacteria had been around for about 3 billion years, but for most of this time they had had the Earth to themselves.Seaweeds, jellyfish-like creatures, sponges and the odd worm do start to put in an appearance a few million years before the Cambrian begins.But red in tooth and claw the Precambrian was not—for neither teeth nor claws existed.Then, in the 20m-year blink of a geological eye, animals arrived in force.Most of the main groups of the animal kingdom—arthropods, brachiopods, coelenterates, echinoderms, molluscs and even chordates, the branch from which vertebrates went on to develop—are found in the fossil beds of the Cambrian.The sudden evolution of this megafauna is known as the Cambrian explosion.But two centuries after it was noticed, in the mountains of Wales after which the Cambrian period is named, nobody knows what detonated it.A group of Chinese scientists, led by Zhu Maoyan of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, plan to change that with a project called “From the Snowball Earth to the Cambrian explosion: the evolution of life and environment 600m years ago”.The “Snowball Earth” refers to a series of ice ages that happened between 725m and 541m years ago.These were, at their maxima, among the most extensive glaciations in the Earth’s history.They alternated, though, with periods that make the modern tropics seem chilly: the planet’s average temperature was sometimes as high as 50C.Add the fact that a supercontinent was breaking up at this time, and you have a picture of a world in chaos.Just the sort of thing that might drive evolution.Dr Zhu and his colleagues hope to find out exactly how these environmental changes correspond to changes in the fossil record.The animals’ carnivalFo rtunately, China’s fossil record for this period is rich.Until recently, the only known fossils of Precambrian animals were what is called the Ediacaran fauna—a handful of strange creatures found in Australia, Canada and the English Midlands that lived in the Ediacaran period, between 635m and 541m years ago, and which bear little resemblance to what came afterwards.In 1998, however, a team led by Chen Junyuan, also of the Nanjing Institute, and another led by Xiao Shuhai of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in America, discovered a 580m-year-old Lagersttte—a place where fossils are particularly well preserved—in a geological formation called the Doushantuo, which spreads out across southern China.Portents of the modern worldThis Lagersttte has yielded many previously unknown species, including microscopic sponges, small tubular organisms of unknown nature, things that look like jellyfish but might not be and a range of what appear to be embryos that show bilateral symmetry.What these embryos would have grown into is unclear. But some might be the ancestors of the Cambrian megafauna.To try to link the evolution of these species with changes in the environment, Chu Xuelei of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Beijing and his colleagues have been looking at carbon isotopes in the Doushantuo rocks.They have found that the proportion of 12C—a light isotope of carbon that is more easily incorporated by living organisms into organic matter than its heavy cousin, 13C—increased on at least three occasions during the Ediacaran period.They suggest these increases mark moments when the amount of oxygen in seawater went up, because more oxygen would mean more oxidisation of buried organic matter. That would liberate its 12C, for incorporation into rocks.E ach of Dr Chu’s oxidation events corresponds with an increase in the size, complexity and diversity of life, both plant and animal.What triggered what, however, is unclear.There may have been an increase in photosynthesis because there were more algae around.Or eroded material from newly formed mountains may have buried organic matter that would otherwise have reacted with oxygen, leading to a build-up of the gas.The last—and most dramatic—rise in oxygen took place towards the end of the Ediacaran.Follow-up work by Dr Zhu, in nine other sections of the Doushantuo formation, suggests this surge started just after the final Precambrian glacial period about 560m years ago, and went on for 9m years.These dates overlap with those of signs of oxidation found in rocks in other parts of the world, confirming that whatever was going on affected the entire planet.Dr Zhu suspects this global environmental shift propelled the evolution of complex animals.Dr Zhu also plans to push back before the Ediacaran period.Other researchers have found fossils of algae and wormlike creatures in rocks in northern China that pre-date the end of the Marinoan glaciation, 635m years ago, which marks the boundary between the Ediacaran and the Cryogenian period that precedes it.Such fossils are hard to study, so Dr Zhu will use new imaging technologies that can look at them without having to clean away the surrounding rock, and are also able to detect traces of fossil organic matter invisible to the eye.Besides digging back before the Ediacaran, the new project’s researchers also intend to analyse the unfolding of the Cambrian explosion itself by taking advantage of other Lagersttten—for China has several that date from the Cambrian.Dr Chen, indeed, first made his name in 1984, when he excavated one at Chengjiang in Yunnan province.It dates from 525m years ago, which make it 20m years older than the most famous CambrianLagersttte in the West, the Burgess shale of British Columbia, in Canada.The project’s researchers plan to see how, evolutionarily speaking, the various Lagerst?tten relate to one another, to try to determine exactly when different groups of organisms emerged.They will also look at the chemistry of elements other than carbon and oxygen—particularly nitrogen and phosphorous, which are essential to life, and sulphur, which often indicates the absence of oxygen and is thus antithetical to much animal life.Dr Zhu hopes to map changes in the distribution of these chemicals across time and space.He will assess how these changes correlate, whether they are related to weathering, mountain building and the ebb and flow of glaciers, how they could have affected the evolution of life, and how plants and animals might themselves have altered the chemistry of air and sea.Most ambitiously, Dr Zhu, Dr Xiao and their colleagues hope to drill right through several fossiliferous sites in southern China where Ediacaran rocks turn seamlessly into Cambrian ones.Such places are valuable because in most parts of the world there is a gap, known as an unconformity, between the Ediacaran and the Cambrian.Unconformities are places where rocks have been eroded before new ones are deposited, and the widespread Ediacaran-Cambrian unconformity has been a big obstacle to understanding the Cambrian explosion.With luck, then, a mystery first noticed in the Welshmountains in the early 19th century will be solved in the Chinese ones in the early 21st.If it is, the origin of the animal kingdom will have become clear, and an important gap in the history of humanity itself will have been filled.英语长篇文章阅读2巴西水资源无水可喝Water in BrazilNor any drop to drinkDry weather and a growing population spell rationingBRAZIL has the world's biggest reserves of fresh water. That most of it sits in the sparsely populated Amazon has not historically stopped Brazilians in the drier, more populous south taking it for granted. No longer. Landlords in S?o Paulo, who are wont to hose down pavements with gallons of potable water, have taken to using brooms instead. Notices in lifts and on the metro implore paulistanos to take shorter showers and re-use coffee mugs.S?o Paulo state, home to one-fifth of Brazil's population and one-third of its economic activity, is suffering the worst drought since records began in 1930. Pitiful rainfall and high rates of evaporation in scorching heat have caused the volume of water stored in the Cantareira system of reservoirs, which supplies 10m people, to dip below 12% of capacity. This time last year, at the end of what is nominally the wet season, it stood at 64%.On April 21st the governor, Geraldo Alckmin, warned that from May consumers will be fined for increasing their water use. Those who cut consumption are already rewarded with discounts on their bills. The city will tap three basins supplying other parts of the state, but since these reservoirs have also been hit bydrought and supply hydropower plants, fears of blackouts are rising.Without a downpour, Sabesp, the state water utility, expects Cantareira's levels to sink beneath the pipes which link reservoirs to consumers a week after S?o Paulo hosts the opening game of the football World Cup on June 12th. To tide the city over until rains resume in November, it is installing kit to pump half of the 400 billion litres of reserves beneath the pipes, at a cost of 80m reais. The company says this “dead volume”, never before used, is perfectly treatable. Some experts have expressed concerns about its quality.Mr Alckmin has not ruled out tightening the spigots. Flow from taps in parts of S?o Paulo has already become a trickle, for which Sabesp blames maintenance work. Widespread cuts could hurt the governor's re-election bid in October. Hours after he announced the latest measures, a thirsty mob set fire to a bus.Paulistanos use more water than most Brazilians, but lose less of it to leaks: 35%, compared with a national average of 39%. Sabesp, listed on the New York Stock Exchange but majority-owned by the state government, is a paragon of good governance, says John Briscoe, a water expert at Harvard and a former head of the World Bank mission in Brazil.The problem exposed by the drought is that supply has not kept pace with the rising urban population. Facing a jumble of overlapping municipal, state and federal regulations, investment in storage, distribution and treatment has lagged behind. And not just in S?o Paulo; the national water regulator has warned that 16 projects in the ten biggest cities must be completed by 2015 to prevent chronic water shortages over the next decade. So far only five are finished; work on some has not begun. Short-term measures should keep the water trickling for now. But the well of temporary solutions will eventually run dry.英语长篇文章阅读3德国公司的管理董事会的多元化BusinessCorporate governance in GermanyDiversifying the boardGerman boards have long been cosy men's clubs. But things are changingHERMANN JOSEF ABS liked to joke, What's the difference between a doghouse and the supervisory board?The doghouse is for the dog; the supervisory board is for the cat.For those unfamiliar with the nuances of German humour, for the cat is slang for something like trash.The late banker would know: while running Deutsche Bank from 1957 to 1967, he also sat on dozens of supervisory boards.This was the peak of Deutschland AG, a clique of long-serving bosses, autocratic chairmen, do-nothing board members and their financier friends.Big German companies' supervisory boards are supposed to act as a check on their management boards.But in practice their relations were too cosy for this.This past year the stumbles of two titans seemed to highlight how much corporate power is still concentrated in few hands in the Germanspeaking world.As 2013 began Gerhard Cromme was chairman of the supervisory boards of both Siemens, an industrial conglomerate, and ThyssenKrupp, a steelmaker.But big losses at foreign mills and heavy fines over a cartelcase cost him the chairmanship at ThyssenKrupp.Then in July, a boardroom bunfight at Siemens ended with the departure of Peter Lscher, the chief executive.Mr Cromme belatedly called for his firing—but only after hiring him and protecting him for years.Josef Ackermann, a Swiss former boss of Deutsche Bank and a Siemens board member, had defended Mr Lscher.When Mr Lscher went, so did he.Shortly before this he had quit as chairman of Zurich, a Swiss insurer, whose chief financial officer had committed suicide, leaving a note berating Mr Ackermann.Now he has no big corporate job, there have been reports that Mr Ackermann may have to step down as a trustee of the World Economic Forum after its gabfest in Davos this week.At first glance, corporate power in Germany still looks male, German and concentrated.But its boardrooms are slowly getting more diverse.In 2003 the average supervisory-board member at a public company sat on 1.9 boards; now the figure is 1.6.A 2001 cut in tax on sales of shares let banks and insurance companies, which played big roles as lenders and part-owners, start disentangling themselves from companies.Into the gaps, and onto the boards, has come a new generation of more active members.Boards have little choice but to be sharper, says Christoph Schalast of Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.Many companies are now paying fines and settlements for their behaviour before the financial crisis.A 2010 change in the law doubled the statute of limitations for such misdeeds to ten years.Progress on making boards more international is slower.Eight of the largest 30 public companies have foreign bosses, but the rest of their boards' members are predominantly German, even at the country's most multinational firms.But Burkhard Schwenker, the boss of Roland Berger, a consulting firm, says that counting passports is simplistic: what matters more is international experience, which German firms increasingly look for when recruiting both management-and supervisory-board members.If boards are becoming more professional and diverse, is accumulation of board seats a bad thing in itself?Jrg Rocholl, the president of the European School for Management and Technology, says that studies disagree on whether busy board members are better or worse for profits.But he agrees that boards are becoming more capable, and says this has been a factor in Germany's economic revival.Pay for German board members is going up; but these days, members are earning it.。

英语名著阅读10篇---简介这份文档将为您提供10本经典的英语名著的简介和推荐。

每本书都有其独特的故事和价值，希望能够激发您对英语文学的兴趣，并提供一段愉快的阅读体验。

1. 《傲慢与偏见》作者：简·奥斯汀（Jane Austen）简介：这部小说以女主角伊丽莎白·本内特为中心，讲述了19世纪英国社会中爱情、婚姻和社会地位的故事。

它探讨了人的傲慢和偏见如何影响他们的决策和感情。

2. 《了不起的盖茨比》作者：F·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德（F. Scott Fitzgerald）简介：这本小说以1920年代纽约上流社会的繁荣和虚荣为背景，讲述了主人公盖茨比对爱情的追求和美国梦的破灭。

它探讨了金钱、荣誉和幻象在人生中的重要性。

3. 《1984》作者：乔治·奥威尔（George Orwell）简介：这部小说描绘了一个极权主义社会的统治和对个人自由的压制。

它探讨了政府操控媒体和思想的主题，并警示了人们对权力滥用的警惕。

4. 《我们这一代》作者：欧文·塞尔托斯（Irwin Shaw）简介：这是一部关于第一次世界大战后美国社会的长篇小说。

它通过描绘三位主人公的经历，展现了战争对他们生活和价值观的影响。

5. 《麦田里的守望者》作者：J.D.塞林格（J.D. Salinger）简介：这部小说以青少年霍尔顿·考尔菲尔德为主角，讲述了他对社会虚伪和成人世界的不满和反叛。

它深入探讨了青春期的困惑和寻找身份的困难。

6. 《新月》作者：斯蒂芬妮·梅耶（Stephenie Meyer）简介：这是《暮光之城》系列的第二本书，讲述了女主人公贝拉·斯旺的爱情故事和与吸血鬼的纠葛。

它充满了浪漫、奇幻和扣人心弦的情节。

7. 《儿童与巨人》作者：约翰·柯泽尔（John Boyne）简介：这是一部讲述二战时期纳粹德国的儿童视角的小说。

它以主人公布鲁诺的视角，展示了人性的光明和黑暗，以及友情和家庭的重要性。