大一英语考试资料

新的开端Fresh Start[1] I first began to wonder what I was doing on a college campus when my parents drove off, leaving me standing pitifully in a parking lot. I decided I wanted nothing more than to find my way safely to my dorm room. It seemed that everyone on campus was watching me. My plan was to keep my ears open and my mouth shut and I hoped no one would notice I was a freshman.[2] The next morning I found my first class and marched in. Once I was in the room, however, another problem awaited me. Where to sit? After much hesitation I chose a seat in the first row and to the side.[3] "Welcome to Biology 101," the professor began. Oh, God, I had thought it was a literature class. A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck. I groped for my schedule and checked the room number. I was in the right room but the wrong building.[4] So now what? Get up and leave in the middle of the lecture? Wouldn't the professor be angry? I knew everyone would stare. Forget it. I settled into my chair and tried to look as serious as a biology major might be.[5] After class I felt a little hungry, and I hurried to the cafeteria. I piled my tray with sandwiches and was heading for the seat when I accidentally stepped in a large puddle of ketchup. My food tray tipped and I lost my balance. As my rear end met the floor, I saw my entire life pass before my eyes; it ended with my first day of college classes.[6] In the seconds after my fall I thought how nice it would be if no one had noticed. But as all the students in the cafeteria came to their feet, cheering and clapping, I knew they had not only noticed, they were determined that I would never forget it.[7] For the next three days I dined alone on nothing more than shame, and some junk food from a machine placed outside my room. On the fourth day I thought I needed some real food badly. Perhaps three days was long enough for the campus population [N] to have forgotten me. So off to the cafeteria I went.[8] I made my way through the food line and tiptoed to a table. Suddenly I heard a crash that sounded familiar. I looked up to find that another poor soul had met the same fate as I had. My heart went out to him as people began to cheerand clap as they had for me. He got up, hands held high above his head in a victory clasp, grinning from ear to ear. Iexpected him to slip out of the cafeteria as I had, but instead he turned around and began preparing another tray. And that's when I realized I had been taking myself far too seriously.[9] Who cared whether I dropped a tray, where I sat in class, or even whether I showed up in the wrong lecture? Nobody. This wasn't like high school. In college, it didn't matter. This was my big chance to do my own thing.[10] Once I realized that I had no one's expectations to live up to but my own, I relaxed. I began to view college as a wonderful experiment. I dressed a little differently, I discovered a taste for jazz, and I decided I liked going barefoot.[11] I gave up trying to act my way through college and began not acting at all. College, I decided, was probably the only time I would be completely forgiven for any mistakes (including stepping in puddles of ketchup and dropping food trays). So I used the opportunity to make all the ones I thought I'd ever make.[12] Three years after graduation, I'm still making mistakes. And I'm even being forgiven for a few.Do Animals Have aCulture?John FriedlLately, social scientists have begun to ask if culture is found just in humans, or if some animals have a culture too. When we speak of culture. We mean a way of life a group of people have in common. Culture includes the beliefs and attitudes we learn. It is the patterns of behavior that help people to live together. It is also the patterns of behavior that make one group different from another group.Our culture lets us make up for having lost our strength, claws, long teeth and some other defenses. Instead, we use tools, cooperate with one another, and communicate with language. But these aspects of behavior, or ’’culture”, can also be found in the lives of certain animals.We used to think that the ability to use tools was the dividing line between human beings and animals. Lately, however we have found that this is not the case. Chimpanzees can not only use tools, but actually make tools themselves. This is a major step up from simply picking up a handy object and using it. For example,chimpanzees have been seen stripping the leaves of a branch, then putting it into a termite nest. When the termites bite at the stick, the chimpanzee removes it and eats them off the end----like our use of a fork.For some time we thought that although human beings learned their culture, animals could not be taught such behavior. Or even if they could learn, they would not teach one another in the way humans do. This ,too, has proven to be untrue. A group of Japanese monkeys was studied at the Kyoto University Monkey Center in Japan. They were given sweet potatoes by scientists who wanted to attract them to the shore of an island. One day a young female began to wash her sweet potato to get rid of the sand. This practice soon spread through the group. It became learned behavior, not from humans but from other monkeys. Now almost all the monkeys who have come into contact with this group do not. Thus there is “culture”deference among animals.We have ruled out tool use and invention as ways of telling animal behavior and human behavior. We have also ruled out the learning and sharing of behavior. Yet we still have held onto the last feature---language. But even the use of language can no longer separate human culture from animal culture. Attempts to teach apes to speak have failed. But teaching them language has been very successful if we are willing to accept other forms than just the spoken word. Two psychologists trained a chimpanzee named Washoe to use Standard American Sign Language. This is the same language used by deaf people. In this language, talk is made through gestures, and not by spelling out words with individual letters. By the time she was five years old, Washoe had a vocabulary of 130 signs. Also, she could put them together in new ways that had not been taught originally. This means she could create language and not just mimic it. She creates her own sentences that have real meaning. This has allowed two-way talk. It permits more than one-way command and response.Of course, there are limits to the culture of animals. As far as we know, no ape has formed social institutions such as religion or law. Also, some chimpanzees may be able to learn sign language, but this form of language is limited in its ability to communicate abstract ideas. Yet with a spoken language we can communicate our entire culture to anyone else who knows that language. Perhaps the most important thing is that the line dividing us from them is not as clear as we used to think.from Fort Lauderdale, Florida in fine weather. There was a total of fourteen men on board the planes. The planeswere in good condition; they had the best equipment on board including compasses and radios, and they also carried life rafts. The planes could float on water for ninety seconds. One and a half hours after the take-off, a radio message from one of the planes was heard at the control tower at Fort Lauderdale.[2] "I don't know where we are."[3] After that the planes could no longer speak to the control tower, but they could speak to and hear each other, and the control tower could hear them.[4] "The magnetic compass is going crazy."[5] "We're completely lost."[6] No other messages were heard after that. Nobody else heard from the planes or saw them again. Three hundred planes and many boats searched the area, but not one trace of Flight 19 was found. Then one of the planes that was sent to look for them also disappeared completely.[7] These planes had disappeared ina very mysterious part of the world in the western Atlantic Ocean where lots of strange events have taken place. The mystery started long before 1945, and since that year many other ships and planes have also disappeared in this area. It is called the Bermuda Triangle. It is a large, triangular area of the ocean with the island of Bermuda at its northern tip.[8] Planes and ships disappear in other parts of the world, but there are more disappearances in the Triangle than in other areas. For years now scientists and others have been puzzled by this mystery. There have been many attempts to explain why people, planes and ships disappear in such high numbers here .[9] One writer, John Spencer, believes that the ships and planes have been carried off from the sea and sky by flying saucers or UFOs from another planet. Since there are millions of other planets in the universe, Spencer believes there must be other intelligent creatures somewhere in the universe. These creatures are interested in collecting humans and their equipment so that they can examine them carefully.[10] Another theory is that the geography of the area is responsible for the disappearances of the ships and planes. Bermuda lies on an earthquake belt. Underwater earthquakes result in large waves appearing suddenly. These waves are so big that they can break aship into pieces. In the air, a similar thing can happen to airplanes because of sudden strong winds.[11] As with Flight 19, many boats and planes have reported that their magnetic compasses stop working properly in the Bermuda Triangle. Normally a magnetic compass points towards magnetic north . However, the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two places on Earth in which a compass points towards true north. Therefore, there is something strange about the magnetic properties of the area.[12] Many people have found these explanations difficult to believe. However, the most recent theory has a scientific basis and is more believable. The discovery of methane gas on the seafloor of the Bermuda Triangle started a scientist, Dr. Mclver, thinking about an explanation for the mysteries. Sometimes large amounts of the gas escape from the seafloor and rise into the air. This could produce large waves on the surface which would make a ship sink. When the gas mixes with air, it could also cause a ship's engine to stop or it could start a fire. Similarly, as the mixture rises into the air, it could cause an airplane's engine to stop or explode. The explosions would break a ship or a plane into tiny pieces.[13] This latest theory has yet to be proved but seems to offer a better explanation as to why Flight 19 and all the other planes, ships and people have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.Unit 6 A World of Mystery The Bermuda Triangle[1] On 5th December 1945, Flight 19, which consisted of five US Navy planes, took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida in fine weather. There was a total of fourteen men on board the planes. The planes were in good condition; they had the best equipment on board including compasses and radios, and they also carried life rafts. The planes could float on water for ninety seconds. One and a half hours after the take-off, a radio message from one of the planes was heard at the control tower at Fort Lauderdale.[2] "I don't know where we are."[3] After that the planes could no longer speak to the control tower, but they could speak to and hear each other, and the control tower could hear them.[4] "The magnetic compass is goingcrazy."[5] "We're completely lost."[6] No other messages were heard after that. Nobody else heard from the planes or saw them again. Three hundred planes and many boats searched the area, but not one trace of Flight 19 was found. Then one of the planes that was sent to look for them also disappeared completely.[7] These planes had disappeared ina very mysterious part of the world in the western Atlantic Ocean where lots of strange events have taken place. The mystery started long before 1945, and since that year many other ships and planes have also disappeared in this area. It is called the Bermuda Triangle. It is a large, triangular area of the ocean with the island of Bermuda at its northern tip.[8] Planes and ships disappear in other parts of the world, but there are more disappearances in the Triangle than in other areas. For years now scientists and others have been puzzled by this mystery. There have been many attempts to explain why people, planes and ships disappear in such high numbers here .[9] One writer, John Spencer, believes that the ships and planes have been carried off from the sea and sky by flying saucers or UFOs from another planet. Since there are millions of other planets in the universe, Spencer believes there must be other intelligent creatures somewhere in the universe. These creatures are interested in collecting humans and their equipment so that they can examine them carefully.[10] Another theory is that the geography of the area is responsible for the disappearances of the ships and planes. Bermuda lies on an earthquake belt. Underwater earthquakes result in large waves appearing suddenly. These waves are so big that they can break a ship into pieces. In the air, a similar thing can happen to airplanes because of sudden strong winds.[11] As with Flight 19, many boats and planes have reported that their magnetic compasses stop working properly in the Bermuda Triangle. Normally a magnetic compass points towards magnetic north . However, the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two places on Earth in which a compass points towards true north. Therefore, there is something strange about the magnetic properties of the area.[12] Many people have found theseexplanations difficult to believe. However, the most recent theory has a scientific basis and is more believable. The discovery of methane gas on the seafloor of the Bermuda Triangle started a scientist, Dr. Mclver, thinking about an explanation for the mysteries. Sometimes large amounts of the gas escape from the seafloor and rise into the air. This could produce large waves on the surface which would make a ship sink. When the gas mixes with air, it could also cause a ship's engine to stop or it could start a fire. Similarly, as the mixture rises into the air, it could cause an airplane's engine to stop or explode. The explosions would break a ship or a plane into tiny pieces.[13] This latest theory has yet to be proved but seems to offer a better explanation as to why Flight 19 and all the other planes, ships and people have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.Unit 8 Romantic StoriesA True Love Story[1] Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning were both English poets. The story of how they met, fell in love, and married is one of the most famous love stories in history. This love story is famous for its purity, its poetry, and its passion. But most of all, it is famous because their romance took place primarily by mail. For the two years before they married, they wrote to each other almost every day.[2] Elizabeth Barrett lived a quiet life in the house of her father. She rarely left the house because she was very weak and sick with a lung disease. From childhood she spent her time reading, studying Greek, and writing poetry. Her poems were published and became popular both in England and in America. Elizabeth’s father, Mr. Barrett, supported his daughter’s writing. However, he was very strict and also eccentric--- he refused to let any of his three daughters marry. He wanted them all to stay with him. When Elizabeth was thirty-seven, she still lived with her father and her two unmarried sisters. She had never married or even been in love. She lived in a dream world. She knew Robert Browning only by name. However, she read his poetry and admired it greatly. She even put his name in a poem that she wrote.[3] Robert Browning’s childhood was similar to Elizabeth’s. He studied Greek, read a great deal, and wrotepoetry at a very young age. As a young adult, he continued to read and write, and struggled to publish his work. By the age of thirty, he was not yet married.[4] One day, Robert was reading some of Elizabeth’s poems. He admired her poetry very much. Suddenly, he saw his name in one of her poems. He was so surprised and pleased that he decided to write her a letter. The year was 1844.[5] With this letter, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning began a secret correspondence. They wrote to each other almost every day. At first, their letters were formal and impersonal. They discussed poetry and literature. Slowly, the letters became more personal.A friendship developed as they discovered their common interests and ideas. They read and criticized each other’s poetry and began to discuss their friendship. They seemed to be perfectly compatible, both intellectually and spiritually. After one year, Robert wrote to Elizabeth that he loved her. They still had never met each other.[6] Finally, Elizabeth and Robert arranged to meet while Elizabeth’s father was not in the house. They were nervous, and even shocked, to see each other face to face at last. They continued meeting and talking secretly once or twice a week for the next year. They also continued to write each other letters every day. Elizabeth wrote: “…You cannot guess what you are to me---you cannot---it is not possible… it is something to me between dream and miracle.” Robert answered that he had never kept a journal before, but he had started one now. In it he wrote the date of every visit with her and how long it lasted. He even wrote the number of minutes they had been together and said that they added up to two full days in length.[7] Then, in September, 1846, in a secret marriage ceremony, Elizabeth Barrett became Elizabeth Barrett Browning. A week later, without telling Eliza beth’s father, the happy couple eloped to Italy. The shock was terrible for Mr. Barrett, but his anger could not diminish their happiness. In 1849, they succeeded in having a son. They lived in Italy, extremely happy, for fifteen years, until Elizabeth’s d eath in 1861.take risks when there'sno danger没有危险时请冒险Wallace wilkinsMany of us have grown up with warnings to be careful. When people1.我们许多人从小到大一直被提醒要小心谨慎。