大学英语精读文本4.docx

大学英语精读4Unit 1TextTwo college-age boys, unaware that making money usually involves hard work, are tempted by an advertisement that promises them an easy way to earn a lot of money. The boys soon learn that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is.BIG BUCKS THE EASY WAYJohn G Hubbell“You ought to look into this,'1 I suggested to our two college-age sons. uIt might be a way to avoid the indignity of having to ask for money all the time.* I handed them some magazines in a plastic bag someone bad hung on our doorknob. A message printed on the bag offered leisurely, lucrative work ("Big Bucks the Easy Way!*') of delivering more such bags.“1 don't mind the indignity/ the older one answered.UI can live with it/' his brother agreed.“But it pains me," I said,"to find that you both have been panhandling so long that it no longer embarrasses you.1'The boys said they would look into the magazine-delivery thing. Pleased, I left town on a business trip. By midnight I was comfortably settled in a hotel room far from home. The phone rang. It was my wife. She wanted to know how my day had gone."Great!" I enthused."How was your day?" I inquired.“Super!” She snapped. MJust super! And its only getting started. Another truck just pulled up out front."1Another truck?',"The third one this evening. The first delivered four thousand Montgomery Wards. The second brought four thousand Sears, Roebucks. I don't know what this one has, but I'm sure it will be four thousand of something. Since you are responsible, I thought you might like to know what's happening.What I was being blamed for, it turned out, was a newspaper strike which made it necessary to hand-deliver the advertising inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper. The company had promised our boys $600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sunday morning.“Piece of cake!* our older college son had shouted."Six hundred bucks!" His brother had echoed,"And we can do the job in two hours!*"Both the Sears and Ward ads are four newspaper-size pages,'1 my wife informed me. HThere are thirty-two thousand pages of advertising on our porch. Even as we speak, two big guys are carrying armloads of paper up the walk. What do we do about all this?""Just tell the boys to get busy," I instructed. uThey,re college men. They'll do what they have to do."At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent message to telephone my wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several more truckloads of ad inserts."They're for department stores, dime stores, drugstores, grocery stores, auto stores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of pages of advertising here! They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house in stacks taller than your oldest son. There's only enough room for people to walk in, take one each of the eleven inserts, roll them together, slip a rubber band around them and slide them into a plastic bag. We have enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant in America!" Her voice kept rising, as if working its way out of the range of the human ear. UA11 this must be delivered by seven o'clock Sunday morning.M“Well, you had better get those guys banding and sliding as fast as they can, and I'll talk to you later. Got a lunch date.When I returned, there was another urgent call from my wife."Did you have a nice lunch?" she asked sweetly. I had had a marvelous steak, but knew better by now than to say so."Awful J I reported. uSome sort of sour fish. Eel, I think."“Good. Your college sons have hired their younger brothers and sisters and a couple of neighborhood children to help for five dollars each. Assembly lines have been set up. In the language of diplomacy, there is 'movement.“That's encouraging/*"No, it's not,'* she corrected. MIt*s very discouraging. They're been as it for hours. Plastic bags have been filled and piled to the ceiling, but all this hasn't made a dent, not a dent, in the situation! Il's almost as if the inserts keep reproducing themselves!"“Another thing," she continued."Your college sons must learn that one does not get the best out of employees by threatening them with bodily harm.Obtaining an audience with son NO.1, I snarled,"Ell kill you if threaten one of those kids again! Idiot! You should be offering a bonus of a dollar every hour to the worker who fills the most bags.“But that would cut into our profit/' he suggested."There won*t be any profit unless those kids enable you to make all the deliveries on time. If they don't, you two will have to remove all that paper by yourselves. And there will be no eating or sleeping until it is removed."There was a short, thoughtful silence. Then he said,"Dad, you have just worked a profound change in my personality."“Do it!”“Yes, sir!”By the following evening, there was much for my wife to report. The bonus program had worked until someone demanded to see the color of cash. Then some activist on the work force claimed that the workers had no business settling for $5 and a few competitive bonuses while the bossed collected hundreds of dollars each. The organizer had declared that all the workers were entitled to $5 per hour! They would not work another minute until the bosses agreed.The strike lasted less than two hours. In mediation, the parties agreed on $2 per hour. Gradually, the huge stacks began to shrink.As it turned out, the job was completed three hours before Sunday's 7 a.m. deadline. By the time I arrived home, the boys had already settled their accounts:$150 in labor costs,$40 for gasoline, and a like amountfor giftsboxes of candy for saintly neighbors who had volunteered station wagons and help in delivery and dozen roses for their mother. This left them with $185 each about two-thirds the minimum wage for the 91 hours they worked. Still, it was "enough1*, as one of them put it, to enable them to uavoid indignity1' for quite a while.All went well for some weeks. Then one Saturday morning my attention was drawn to the odd goings-on of our two youngest sons. They kept carrying carton after carton from various comers of the house out the front door to curbside. I assumed their mother had enlisted them to remove junk for a trash pickup. Then I overheard them discussing finances.“Geez, we're going to make a lot of money !M"We're going to be rich!',Investigation revealed that they were offering '* for sale or rent11 our entire library."No! No!" I cried. HYou can't sell our books!"“Geez, Dad, we thought you were done with them!M“You're never 'done* with books,'* I tried to explain.“Sure you are. You read them, and you're done with them. That's it. Then you might as well make a little money from them. We wanted to avoid the indignity of having to ask you for*'New Wordsbuckn.(si.) U.S. dollarplastica.塑料的n.(pl)塑料doorknobn.门把手leisurelya. unhurried从容的，慢慢的leisuren. free time空闲时间，闲暇lucrativea. profitable有利的：赚钱的painvt. cause pain topanhandlevi.(AmE) beg. esp. on the streetsdeliveryn. delivering (of letters, goods,送交enthusevi. show enthusiasminquirevt. asksupera.(colloq.) wonderful, splendid; excellentsnapvt. say(sth.) sharply 厉声说insertn.插页normallyad. in the usual conditions; ordinarily 通常companyn.公司echovt. say or do what another person says or does; repeat 附和；币:复adn.(short for) advertisementinformvt. tell; give information 告知Iporchn.(AmE) veranda 门廊armloadn. as much as one arm or both arms can hold; armfulwalkn. a path specially arranged or paved for walking 人行道unnaturallyad. in an unnatural way 不自然地quavervi.(of the voice or sound) shake; tremble 颤抖truckloadn. as much or as many as a truck can carrydepartment storen. store selling many different kinds of goods in separate departments 百货公司dimen. coin of U.S. and Canada worth ten centsdime storen.（AmE） a store selling a large variety of low-priced articles; variety store 廉价商品店；小商口店drugstoren.（AmE） a store that sells not only medicine, but also beauty products, film, magazines, and food药店，杂货店groceryn. a store that sells food and household supplies 食品杂货店sectionn. part of subdivision of a piece of writing, book, newspaper, etc.; portion （文章等的）段落；节；部分cramvt. fill too full; force or press into a small space 把塞满；把塞进stackn. an orderly; heap or group of things 一叠（堆、垛等）bandn. flat, thin piece of material 带；带状物vt. tie up with a band 捆扎rubber bandn.橡皮筋takeouta.（餐馆）出售外卖菜的rangen. the distance at which one can see or hear （听觉、视觉等）的范围marvel(l)ousa. wonderful; astonishingsteakn.牛排；大块肉(或鱼)片soura.酸的eeln.鳗鲸diplomacyn.外交encouraginga.鼓舞人心的dentn. a hollow in a hard surface made by a blow or pressure; initial progress 凹痕，凹坑，初步进展reproducevt. produce the young of (oneself or one's own kind)生殖，繁殖bodilya. of the human body; physicalharmn. damage or wrong 伤害audiencen. the people gathered in a place to hear or see; a chance to be heard 观众；听众；陈述意见的机会snarlvt. speak in a harsh voice 咆哮着说bonusn. an extra payment to workers 奖金thoughtfula. give to or indicating thought 沉思的，思考的cashn. money in coins or notes 现金activistn. a person taking an active part esp. in a political movement 激进分子work forcen. total number of workers employed in a particular factory, industry or area 工人总数；劳动人competitivea.竞争的organizern. person who organizes things 组织者mediationn.调解partyn. one of the people or sides in an agreement or argument 方；当事人graduallyad. slowly and by degrees.graduala.shrink (shrank, shrunk)vi. become less or smaller 减少：变小deadlinen. fixed limit of finishing a piece of work 最后期限station wagonn.小型客车，客货两用车minimum (pl. minima or minimums)n. the smallest possible amount, number, etc.最低限度的量、数等minimum wagen. the lowest wage permitted by law or by agreement for certain work 法定最工资odda. strange; unusualgoings-onn. activities, usu. of an undesirable kindcartonn. a cardboard box for holding goods 纸板箱(或盒)curbsiden. the area of sidewalk at or near curb (curb:人行道的镶边石)enlistvt. obtain the support and help of; cause to join the armed forces 取得的支持和帮助；征募trashn. waste material to be thrown away; rubbish 垃圾pickupn. a small light truck with an open back used for light deliveries 小卡车；轻型货车overhearvt. hear by chance; hear without the knowledge of the speaker(s)无意中听至lj；偷听至financen. money matters;(used in pl.) money;(science of) the management of funds 财政；钱财；金融geezint.哎呀,呀salen. the act of selling sth.Phrases & Expressionspull upbring or come to a stop (使)停下a piece of cake(informal) sth. very easy to doeven asjust at the same moment asknow better thanbe wise or experienced enough not (to do sth.)明事理而不至于be atbe occupied with, be doingmake a dent (in)make less by a very small amount; reduce slightly; make a first step towards success(in)减少一点；取得初步进展cut intoreduce; decrease 减少have no businesshave no right or reason 无权，没有理由settle foraccept, although not altogether satisfactory (无可奈何地)满足于settle one's accountpay what one owes 结帐quite a whilea fairly long timedraw(sb.'s) attention tomake sb. notice, or be aware offor saleintended to be soldfor rentavailable to be rentedbe done withstop doing or using; finish 做完，不再使用may/might/could as wellwith equal or better effect 不妨，还不如,最好Proper NamesMontgomery Ward蒙哥马利沃德百货公司Sears, Roebuck西尔斯一罗百克百货公司Unit 2TextIs there anything we can learn from deer? During the "energy crisis* of 1973-1974 the writer of this essay was living in northern Minnesota and was able to observe how deer survive when winter arrives. The lessons he learns about he way deer conserve energy turn out applicable to our everyday life.DEER AND THE ENERGY CYCLESome persons say that love makes the world go round. Others of a less romantic and more practical turn of mind say that it isn*t love; it*s money. But the truth is that it is energy that makes the world go round. Energy is the currency of the ecological system and life becomes possible only when food is converted into energy, which in turn is used to seek more food to grow, to reproduce and to survive. On this cycle all life depends.Il is fairly well known that wild animals survive from year to year by eating as much as they can during times of plenty, the summer and fall, storing the excess, usually in the form of fat, and then using these reserves of fat to survive during the hard times in winter when food is scarce. But it is probably less well known that even with their stored fat, wild animals spend less energy to live in winter than in summer.A good case in point is the whiter-tailed deer. Like most wildlife, deer reproduce, grow, and store fat in the summer and fall when there is plenty of nutritious food available. A physically mature female deer in good condition who has conceived in November and given birth to two fawns during the end of May or first part of June, must search for food for the necessary energy not only to meet her body*s needs but also to produce milk for her fawns. The best milk production occurs at the same time that new plant growth is available. This is good timing, because milk production is an energy consuming process it requires a lot of food. The cost can not be met unless the region has ample food resources.As the summer progresses and the fawns grow, they become less dependent on their mother's milk and more dependent on growing plants as food sources. The adult males spend the summer growing antlers and getting fat. Both males and females continue to eat high quality food in the fall in order to deposit body fat for the winter. In the case of does and fawns, a great deal of energy is expended either in milk production or in growing, and fat is not accumulated as quickly as it is in full grown males. Fat reserves are like bank accounts to be drawn on in the winter when food supplies are limited and sometimes difficult to reach because of deep snow.As fall turns into winter, other changes take place. Fawns lose their spotted coat. Hair on all the deer becomes darker and thicker. The change in the hair coats is usually complete by September and maximum hair depths are reached by November or December when the weather becomes cold.But in addition, nature provides a further safeguard to help deer survive the winter-an internal physiological response which lowers their metabolism, or rate of bodily functioning, and hence slows down their expenditure of energy. The deer become somewhat slow and drowsy. The heart rate drops. Animals that hibernate practice energy conservation to a greater extreme than deer do. Although deer don't hibernate, they do the same thing with their seasonal rhythms in metabolism. Deer spend more energy and