新概念英语第四册听力_新概念英语第四册学习手册【Lesson37、38、39】

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Lesson 37

The process of ageing

衰老过程

First listen and then answer the following question.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

What is one of the most unpleasant discoveries we make about ourselves as we get older?

At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous. It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence; but at this age the likelihood of death is least. Earlier, we were infants and young children, and consequently more vulnerable; later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigour and resistance which, though imperceptible at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer, however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors, look after us. This decline in vigour with the passing of time is called ageing. It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars, accidents and disease we shall eventually 'die of old age', and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person, so that there are heavy odds in favour of our dying between the ages of sixty-five and eighty. Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer -- on into a ninth or tenth decade. But the chances are against it, and there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and robust we are.

Normal people tend to forget this process unless and until they are reminded of it. We are so familiar with the fact that man ages, that people have for years assumed that the process of losing vigour with time, of becoming more likely to die the older we get, was something self-evident, like the cooling of a hot kettle or the wearing-out of a pair of shoes. They have also assumed that all animals, and probably other organisms such as trees, or even the universe itself, must in the nature of things 'wear out'. Most animals we commonly observe do in fact age as we do, if given the chance to live long enough; and mechanical systems like a wound watch, or the sun, do in fact run out of energy in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (whether the whole universe does so is a moot point at present). But these are not analogous to what happens when man ages. A run-down watch is still a watch and can be rewound. An old watch, by contrast, becomes so worn and unreliable that it eventually is not worth mending. But a watch could never repair itself -- it does not consist of living parts, only of metal, which wears away by friction. We could, at one time, repair ourselves --well enough, at least, to overcome all but the most instantly fatal illnesses and accidents. Between twelve and eighty years we gradually lose this power; an illness which at twelve would knock us over, at eighty can knock us out, and another 700 for the survivors to be reduced by half again.

New words and expressions 生词和短语

likelihood

n. 可能性

infant

n. 婴儿

vulnerable

adj. 脆弱

imperceptible

adj. 感觉不到的

steep

adj. 急转直下

ageing

n. 老化

odds

n. 可能性

virtual

adj. 实际上的

robust

adj. 强健的

organism

n. 有机体

thermodynamics

n. 热力学

moot

adj. 争论未决的

run-down

adj. 破旧的

friction

n. 摩擦

参考译文

人体在12岁时是生命力最旺盛的时期。虽然这个时期人的身材、体力和智力还有待发展和完善，但在这个年龄死亡的可能性最小。再早一些，我们是幼儿和小孩子，身体较脆弱;再迟一些，我们就要经历生命力和抵抗力逐步衰退的过程。虽然这个过程起初难以觉察，但最终会急转直下，不管我们怎样精心照料我们自己，不管社会和医生怎样对我们进行精心照顾，我们也无法再活下去了。生命力随着时间的流失而衰退叫做衰老。人类发现的最不愉快的一个事实是：人必然会衰老。既使我们能避开战争、意外的事故和各种疾病，我们最终也会“老死”;衰老的速度在人与人之间相差甚微，我们最可能死亡的年龄在65至80岁之间，有些人会死得早一些，少数人寿命会长一些 -- 活到八十几岁或九十几岁，但这种可能性很小。不管我们多么幸运，多么健壮，我们所希望的长寿实际上是有限度的。

衰老的过程，不经提起，正常人容易忘记;一经提醒，才会记起。我们对人总是要衰老的现象并不陌生，多年来就已认识到。生命随着时间流失而丧失活力，人随着年龄的增长而接近死亡，这是不言而喻的，就像一壶热水迟早会凉不来，一双鞋渐渐会磨破一样。人们不但认识到所有的动物，大概也认识到所有的有机物。如树木，甚至宇宙本身，从事物的本质上来说都会“磨损掉”。我们通常看到的大多数动物，即使能让它们活得足够长久的话，也会像我们一样衰老的。像上紧发条的手表那样的机械装置，或太阳，也都会消耗完其能量(整个宇宙否如此，目前沿有争论)。不过，这些衰老的情况同人并不相似。手表停了依然是只手表，还可以重上好发条。然而一只老掉牙的手表，磨损太厉害，老得一点儿不准了，最终不值得修理了。但是，手表决不会自行修理，它不是由有生命的部件组成，而是由金属组成，而金属可以随着磨擦而磨损殆尽。而我们人，在一定时间内是可以自行修复的，除了暴病死或意外事故外，至少足以克服一切疾病和事故。在12岁至80岁之间，我们逐渐丧失这种能力。能使我们在12岁时病倒的疾病，到了80岁可能会使我们一厥不振而进入坟墓。假如我们能保持12岁时的旺盛生命力，那么我们当中的一半人过700年才会死去，剩下的一半人再过700年，才会又减少一半。

Lesson 38

Water and the traveller

水和旅行者

First listen and then answer the following question.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

What does this text describe?

Contamination of water supplies is usually due to poor sanitation close to water sources, sewage disposal into the sources themselves, leakage of sewage into distribution systems or contamination with industrial or farm waste. Even if a piped water supply is safe at its source, it is not always safe by the time it reaches the tap. Intermittent tap-water supplies should be regarded as particularly suspect.

Travellers on short trips to areas with water supplies of uncertain quality should avoid drinking tap-water, or untreated water from any other source. It is best to hot drinks, bottled or canned drinks of well-known brand names -- international standards of water treatment are usually followed at bottling plants. Carbonated drinks are acidic, and slightly safer. Make sure that all bottles are opened in your presence, and that their rims are clean and dry.

Boiling is always a good way of treating water. Some hotels supply boiled water on request and this can be used for drinking, or for brushing teeth. Portable boiling elements that can boil small quantities of water are useful when the right voltage of electricity is available. Refuse politely any cold drink from an unknown source.

Ice is only as safe as the water from which it is made, and should not be put in drinks unless it is known to be safe. Drink can be cooled by placing them on ice tather than adding ice to them.

Alcohol may be a medical disinfectant, but should not be relied upon to sterilize water. Ethanol is more effective at a concentration of 50-70 per cent; below 20 per cent, its bactericidal action is negligible. Spirits labelled 95 proof contain only about 47 per cent alcohol. Beware of methylated alcohol, which is very poisonous, and should never be added to drinking water.

If no other safe supply can be obtained, tap water that is too hot to touch can be left to cool and is generally safe to drink. Those planning a trip to remote areas, or intending to live in countries where drinking water is not readily available, should know about the various possible methods for making water safe.

RICHARD DAWOOD Travellers' Health

New words and expressions 生词和短语

contamination

n. 污染

sanitation

n. 卫生，卫生设备

sewage

n. 污水

leakage

n. 泄漏

intermittent

adj. 间歇的，断断续续的

carbonated

adj. 碳化的，碳酸的

acidic

adj. 酸的，酸性的

alcohol

n. 酒精

disinfectant

n. 消毒剂

sterilize

v. 消毒

ethanol

n. 乙醇

bactericidal

adj. 杀菌的

negligible

adj. 可以忽略的，微不足道的

methylated

adj. 加入甲醇的

参考译文

水源的污染通常是由于接近水源的地方卫条件太差而造成的：污水排入水源，污水渗入给水系统或工农业污水造成污染。即使管道供水系统在水源处安全的，等水到达龙头时就不一定总是安全的了。断断续续的水管应该被视为是非常可疑的。

短途旅行到水质不保险的地区时，应避免饮用水龙头的水或未经处理任何其他来源的水。仅饮用开水，瓶装或罐装水 -- 装瓶厂通常遵循国际水处理的标准。碳酸饮料是酸性的，就更安全一些。确保瓶子是当你面开启的，瓶口清洁干燥。

烧开一直是水处理的一种好办法。有的酒店根据要求可提供开水，这些开水可用于饮用和刷牙。如果有相配的电压，可以煮少量水的便携式热水装置是有用的。应谢绝任何不明来源的冷饮。

冰块只有当制造冰块的水安全时才是保险的，只有知道冰块安全时才能加入饮料。可以把饮料置于冰块之上来冷却，而不是把冰块加进饮料之中。

酒精可能是医学上的消毒剂，但决不可用来消毒饮用水。乙醇的浓度为50%至70%时比较有效，浓度低于20%时，杀菌能力基本上就不存在了。强度标为95的酒中含有47%的酒精。要提防甲基化酒精，那是剧毒的，永远不能掺入饮用水。

如果没有其他安全的饮用水，水管中流出的烫手的水可以留下来冷却。这种水一般是安全的。那些计划去偏远地区旅行，或在饮用水不现成的国家居住的人，应该知道如何使水适于饮用的各种办法。

Lesson 39

What every writer wants

作家之所需

First listen and then answer the following question.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

How do professional writers ignore what they were taught at school about writing?

I have known very few writers, but those I have known, and whom I respect, confess at once that they have little idea where they the are going when they first set pen to paper. They have a character, perhaps two; they are in that condition of eager discomfort which passes for inspiration; all admit radical changes of destination once the journey has begun; one, to my certain knowledge, spent nine months on a novel about Kashmir, then reset the whole thing in the Scottish Highlands. I never heard of anyone making a 'skeleton', as we were taught at school. In the breaking and remaking, in the timing, interweaving, beginning afresh, the writer comes to discern things in his material which were not consciously in his mind when he began. This organic process, often leading to moments of extraordinary self-discovery, is of an indescribable fascination. A blurred image appears; he adds a brushstroke and another, and it is gone; but something was there, and he will not rest till he has captured it. Sometimes the yeast within a writer outlives a book he has written. I have heard of writers who read nothing but their own books; like adolescents they stand before the mirror, and still cannot fathom the exact outline of the vision before them. For the same reason, writers talk interminably about their own books, winkling out hidden meanings, super-imposing new ones, begging response from those around them. Of course a writer doing this is misunderstood: he might as well try to explain a crime or a love affair. He is also, incidentally, an unforgivable bore.

This temptation to cover the distance between himself and the reader, to study his image in the sight of those who do not know him, can be his undoing: he has begun to write to please.

A young English writer made the pertinent observation a year or two back that the talent goes into the first draft, and the art into the drafts that follow. For this reason also the writer, like any other artist, has no resting place, no crowd or movement in which he may take comfort, no judgment from outside which can replace the judgment from within. A writer makes order out of the anarchy of his heart; he submits himself to a more ruthless discipline than any critic dreamed of, and when he flirts with fame, he is taking time off from living with himself, from the search for what his world contains at its inmost point.

JOHN LE CARRE What every writer wants from Harper's

New words and expressions 生词和短语

confess

v. 承认

inspiration

n. 灵感

Kashmir

n. 克什米尔

interweave

v. 交织

afresh

adv. 重新

discern

v. 辨明，领悟

indescribable

adj. 无法描述的

blur

v. 使...模糊不清

yeast

n. 激动

fathom

v. 领悟，彻底了解

interminably

adv. 没完没了地

winkle

v. 挖掘

incidentally

adv. 顺便说一下

pertinent

adj. 中肯的

flirt

v. 调情

inmost

adj. 内心深处

参考译文

我的认识的作家寥寥无几，然而凡是我所认识和尊敬的作家，都立即承认在他们动笔时，不清楚要写什么，怎么写。他们心中只在一个或两个角色。他们处于急切不安的状态，而被当作是灵感。他们无不承认，一旦“旅程”开始，“目的地”常有急剧的变化。据我所知，有位作家花了9个月的时间写了一部关克什米尔的小说，后来却把整个故事背景换成了苏格兰高地。我从未听说过任何一位作家像我们在学校那样，动笔前先列什么提纲。作家在剪裁修改、构思时间、穿插情节、以至从头重写的过程中，会领悟到素材中很多东西是他刚动笔时所未意识到的。这种有机的加工过程往往达到不寻常自我发现的境界，具有难以言表的构思魅力。一个朦胧的形象出现在作家的脑海里，他左添一笔，右添一笔，形象反而消逝了;可是，好像还有什么东西存在着，不把它捕捉到，作家是不会罢休的。有时，一个作家一本书写完了，但兴奋仍不消散。我听说一些作家，除了自己的书外，别的书一概不读，犹如希腊神话中那位漂亮的少年，站在镜前，不能辨认自身的真面目。由于这个原因，作家喋喋不休地谈论自己的书，挖掘其隐晦的含义，询问周围人的反应。作家如此行事当然被人误解。他还不如给人讲一个犯罪案件或一个恋爱故事。顺便说一句，他也是个不可饶恕的令人厌烦的人。

这种企图消除自己和读者之间距离的作法，企图用不了解自己的人的观点来研究自己塑造的形象的作法，会导致作家的毁灭，因为他已经开始为取悦他人而写作了。

一两年前，一位年轻的英国作家发表了中肯的看法。他说，初稿是才华，以后各稿是艺术。也是由于这个原因，作家同任何艺术家一样，找不到可休息的场所，找不到伙伴和活动使自己得到安逸。任何局外人的判断也比不上他内心的正确判断。一旦作家从内心的紊乱中理出头绪，就应该按任何评论家想像不到的无情规范约束自己写作;当他沽名钓誉时，他就脱离了自我生活，脱离了对自己灵魂最深处世界的探索。

新概念英语第四册学习手册【Lesson37、38、39】.doc

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