新编英语教程5下ANEWENGLISHCOURSELEVEL5(Unit815课文整理)

1、新编英语教程5 下(unit 8-15全册课文整理版) ants 05unit 8text i （p 97）why nothing works marvin harris1 according to a law attributed to the savant known only as murphy: if anything can go wrong, it will. corollaries to murphys law suggest themselves as clues to the shoddy goods problem: if anything can break down,

2、it will; if anything can fall apart, it will; if anything can stop running, it will. while murphys law can never be wholly defeated, its effects can usually be postponed. much of human existence consists of effects aimed at making sure that things dont go wrong, fall apart, break down, or stop runni

3、ng until a decent interval has elapsed after their manufacture. forestalling murphys law as applied to products demands intelligence, skill, and commitment. if those human inputs assisted by special quality-control instruments, machines, and scientific sampling procedures, so much the better. but ga

4、dgets and sampling alone will never do the trick since these items are also subject to murphys law. quality-control instruments need maintenance; gauges go out of order; xrays and laser beams need adjustments. no matter how advanced the technology, quality demands intelligent, motivated human though

5、t and action.2 some reflection about the material culture of prehistoric and preindustrial peoples may help to show what i mean. a single visit to a museum which displays artifacts used by simple preindustrial societies is sufficient to dispel the notion that quality is dependent on technology. arti

6、facts may be of simple, even primitive design, and yet be built to serve their intended purpose in a reliable manner during a lifetime of use. we acknowledge this when we honor the label handmade and pay extra for the jewelry, sweaters, and handbags turned out by the dwindling breeds of modern-day c

7、raftspeople. 3 what is the source of quality that one finds, let us say, in a pomo indian basket so tightly woven that it was used it hold boiling water and never leaked a drop, or in an eskimo skin boat with its matchless combination of lightness, strength, and seaworthiness? was it merely the fact

8、 that these items were handmade? i dont think so. in unskilled or uncaring hands a handmade basket or boat can fall apart as quickly as baskets or boats made by machines. i rather think that the reason we honor the label handmade is because it evokes not a technological relationship between producer

9、 and consumer. throughout prehistory it was the fact that producers and consumers were either one and the same individuals or close kin that guaranteed the highest degree of reliability and durability in manufactured items. men made their own spears, bows and arrows, and projectile points; women wov

10、e their baskets and carrying nets, fashioned their own clothing from animal skins, bark, or fiber. later, as technology advanced and material culture grew more complex, different members of the band or village adopted craft specialists such as pottery-making, basket-weaving, or canoe-building. altho

11、ugh many items were obtained through barter and trade, the connection between producer and consumer still remained intimate, permanent, and caring.4 a man is not likely to fashion a spear for himself whose point will fall off in mid-flight; nor is a woman who weaves her own basket likely to make it

12、out of rotted straw. similarly, if one is sewing a parka for a husband who is about to go hunting for the family with the temperature at sixty below, all stitches will be perfect. and when the men who make boats are the uncles and fathers of those who sail them, they will be as seaworthy as the stat

13、e of the art permits.5 in contrast, it is very hard for people to care about strangers or about products to be used by strangers. in our era of industrial mass production and mass marketing, quality is a constant problem because the intimate sentimental and personal bonds which once made us responsi

14、ble to each other and to our products have withered away and been replaced by money relationships. not only are the producers and consumers strangers but the women and men involved in various stages of production and distribution - management, the worker on the factory floor, the office help, the sa

15、lespeople -are also strangers to each other. in larger companies there may be hundreds of thousands of people all working on the same product who can never meet face-to-face or learn one anothers names. the larger the company and the more complex its division of labor, the greater the sum of uncarin

16、g relationships and hence the greater the effect of murphys law. growth adds layer on layer of executives, foremen, engineers, production workers, and sales specialists to the payroll. since each new employee contributes a diminished share to the overall production process, alienation from the compa

17、ny and its product are likely to increase along with the neglect or even purposeful sabotage of quality standards.from: g. levin, 1987,pp.94-97.text ii （p 103）the plot against people russell baker1. inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categoriesthose that break down, tho

18、se that get lost, and those that dont work. 2. the goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately to defeat him, and the three major classifications are based on the method each object uses to achieve its purpose. as a general rule, any object capable of breaking down at the moment wh

19、en it is most needed will do so. the automobile is typical of the category. 3. with the cunning peculiar to its breed, the automobile never breaks down while entering a 3)filling station which has a large staff of idle mechanics. it waits until it reaches a downtown intersection in the middle of the

20、 rush hour, or until it is fully loaded with family and luggage on the 4)ohio 5)turnpike. thus it creates maximum inconvenience, frustration, and irritability, thereby reducing its owners lifespan. 4. washing machines, garbage disposals, lawn mowers, furnaces, tv sets, tape recorders, 6)slide projec

21、torsall are 7)in league with the automobile to take their turn at breaking down whenever life 8)threatens to flow smoothly for their enemies. 5. many inanimate objects, of course, find it extremely difficult to break down. 9)pliers,for example, and gloves and keys are almost totally incapable of bre

22、aking down. therefore, they have had to evolve a different technique for resisting man. 6. they get lost. science has still not solved the mystery of how they do it, and no man has ever caught one of them in the act. the most 10)plausible theory is that they have developed a secret method of locomot

23、ion which they are able to conceal from human eyes. 7. it is not uncommon for a pair of pliers to climb all the way from the cellar to the attic in its single-minded determination to raise its owners blood pressure. keys have been known to burrow three feet under mattresses. womens purses, despite t

24、heir great weight, frequently travel through six or seven rooms to find hiding space under a couch. 8. scientists have been struck by the fact that things that break down virtually never get lost, while things that get lost hardly ever break down. a furnace, for example, will invariably break down a

25、t the depth of the first winter cold wave, but it will never get lost. a womans purse hardly ever breaks down; it almost invariably chooses to get lost. 9. some persons believe this constitutes evidence that inanimate objects are not entirely hostile to man. after all, they point out, a furnace coul

26、d infuriate a man even more thoroughly by getting lost than by breaking down, just as a glove could upset him far more by breaking down than by getting lost. 10. not everyone agrees, however, that this indicates a 11)conciliatory attitude. many say it merely proves that furnaces, gloves and pliers a

27、re incredibly stupid.11. the third class of objectsthose that dont workare the most curious of all. these include such objects as 12)barometers, car clocks, cigarette lighters, flashlights and toy-train locomotives. it is inaccurate, of course, to say that they never work. they work once, usually fo

28、r the first few hours after being brought home, and then quit. thereafter, they never work again.12. in fact, it is widely assumed that they are built for the purpose of not working. some people have reached advanced ages without ever seeing some of these objectsbarometers, for example13)in working

29、order. 13. science is utterly 14)baffled by the entire ca-tegory. there are many theories about it. the most interesting holds that the things that dont work have attained the highest state possible for an inanimate object, the state to which things that break down and things that get lost can still

30、 only aspire. 14. they have truly defeated man by 15)conditioning him never to expect anything of them. when his cigarette lighter wont light or his flashlight fails to illuminate, it does not raise his blood pressure. objects that dont work have given man the only peace he receives from inanimate s

31、ociety. from: s. s. webb, pp.279-283.unit 9text i （p 108）where is the news leading us? norman cousins1 not long ago i was asked to join in a public symposium on the role of the american press. two other speakers were included on the program. the first was a distinguished tv anchorman. the other was

32、the editor of one of the nations leading papers, a newsman to the core though , aggressive, and savvy in the ways and means of solid reporting.2 the purpose of the symposium, as i understood it, was to scrutinize the obligations of the media and to suggest the best ways to meet those obligations.3 d

33、uring the open-discussion period, a gentleman in the audience addressed a question to my two colleagues. why, he asked, are the newspapers and the television news programs so disaster-prone? why are newsmen and women so attracted to tragedy, violence, failure?4 the anchorman and editor reached as th

34、ough they had been blamed for the existence of bad news. newsmen and newswomen, they said, are only responsible for reporting the news, not for creating it or modifying it5 it didnt seem to me that the newsmen had answered the question. the gentleman who had asked it was not blaming them for the dis

35、tortions in the world. he was just wondering why distortions are most reported. the news media seem to operate on the philosophy that all news is bad news. why? could it be that the emphasis on downside news is largely the result of tradition the way newsmen are accustomed to respond to daily events

36、?6 perhaps it would be useful here to examine the way we define the world news, for this is where the problem begins. news is supposed to deal with happenings of the past 12 hours - 24 hours at most. any sniper kills some pedestrians; a terrorist holds 250 people hostage in a plane; opec announces a

37、 25 percent increase in petroleum prices; great britain devalues by another 10 percent; a truck conveying radioactive wastes collides with a mobile cement mixer.7 focusing solely on these details, however, produces a misshapen picture. civilization is a lot more than the sum total of its catastrophe

38、s. the most important ingredient in any civilization is progress. but progress doesnt happen all at once. it is not eruptive. generally, it comes in bits and pieces, very little of it clearly visible at any given moment, but all of involved in the making of historical change for the better.8 it is t

39、his aspect of living history that most news reporting reflects inadequately. the result is that we are underinformed about positive developments and overinformed about disasters. this, in turn, leads to a public mood of defeatism and despair, which in themselves tend to be inhibitors of progress. an

40、 unrelieved diet of eruptive news depletes the essential human energies a free society needs. a mood of hopelessness and cynicism is hardly likely to furnish the energy needed to meet serious challenges.9 i am not suggesting that “positive” news be contrived as an antidote to the disasters on page o

41、ne. nor do i define positive news as in-depth reportage of functions of the local ymca. what i am trying to get across is the notion that the responsibility of the news media is to search out and report on important events- whether or not they come under the heaven and hell, and both sectors call fo

42、r attention and scrutiny.10 my hope is that the profession of journalism will soon see its responsibility in a wider perspective. the time has come to consider the existence of a large area of human happenings that legitimately qualify as news. for example, how many news articles have been written a

43、bout nitrogen-fixation - the process by which plants can be made to “fix” their own nitrogen, thus reducing the need for fertilizer? scientists all over the world are now pursuing this prospect in the hope of combating famine. how much is known about the revolutionary changes being made in increasin

44、g the rice harvest in the far east? there are literally dozens of similar important development in the world that are worthy of inclusion in any roundup of major new stories.11 the anchorman and editor were right in saying that newsmen and women are not responsible for shaping the world. but they ar

45、e responsible for affecting our attitudes. we are only what we think we are; we can achieve only those goals we dare to envision. news people provide us with the only picture we have of ourselves and of the world. it had better be a true portrait and not a caricature for it is this picture on which

46、we will base our decisions and around which we will plan our future.12 the journalist, to paraphrase walter lippmann, is the publics philosopher. “ the acquired culture,” lippmann wrote, “is not transmitted in our genes. the good life in the good society, though attainable, is never attained and pos

47、sessed once and for all. what has been attained will again be lost if the wisdom of the good life in a good society is not transmitted.”13 with an accurate report of the good life in the good society, we can begin to use the news as bernard de chartres suggested we use history boosting ourselves up

48、on our experiences, “like dwarfs seated on the shoulders of giants,” enabled, thus, “to see more things than the americans and things more distant.”from: s.a. clayes et al, pp.331-333.text ii （p 113）should the press be human katharine whitehorn1. if you were asked who shot lee harvey oswald you woul

49、d probably say jack ruby, but theres another possible answer to the question: the photographer who shot those staggering pictures of ruby gunning him down. and what has teased my mind ever since is wondering whether, if he had dropped his camera and grabbed the gunman, we might, with oswald alive, k

50、now more than we will now ever be able to find out about why kennedy died. 2. journalists and tv people, we know, are supposed to record what goes on; but in trying to get the best record they can, they may sometimes seem amazingly cold-blooded. in the massacre that followed the british quitting ind

51、ia, there was a photographer who made a sorrowing indian family bury and rebury its dead several times till he got a perfect shot. a bbc sound man held up a nigerian execution for half an hour while he adjusted his sound equipment; you could say it didnt make any difference to the final outcome, but

52、 it doesnt make you feel especially warm towards the man concerned. 3. should these journalists and photographers join in, or just stand back and watch while people kill one another? its a tricky ethical question, not just a matter of how brave anyone is feeling at the time; because without authenti

53、c pictures, how will the world know, how should the world believe what atrocities are committed? one dead photographer does not do much for the cause he cares about, even if he did feel compelled to weigh in and take sides. 4. our professional ethic enjoins us to stay uncommitted and report the fact

54、s; and, if we have to have guidelines, thats probably as good a one as any. certainly some of the seediest of journalists, whether were talking about the middle easy or northern ireland, are those who pile on one set of adjectives-squalid, butchering, oppressive-for terrorism of whose aims they disa

55、pprove, and quite another set-committed, dedicated-for the same thing done by those they like. 5. but it leaves out a lot. my complaint journalists, a friend of mine once said, is not that they behave badly in the course of duty, but their inability to recoil into a human being when its over. i have

56、 not forgotten an occasion over 20 years ago, when a birdman was going to jump from a press-filled rapide. he got his equipment tangled with the airplane in some way, and plunged to his death. as most of them watched in shocked horror, one newsman ran down the plane with the words: my god, what a st

57、ory! 6. to stay out of the fight, to write down whats going on, to treat equally with both sides, as a doctor will stitch up soldiers in either uniform or a lawyer argue for either side-that is supposed to be our code; and when it comes to the crunch, we probably do better trying to stick to that, t

58、han rushing off on individual impulse. 7. but is there not a point in any profession where you are forced back against the wall as a human being, where a doctor should hand jack the ripper over to the police and a lawyer refuse to suppress the bloodstained evidence that proves his client a torturer?

59、 i think there is. during the algerian confusion, some tunisian soldiers were preparing to shoot their prisoners (what a story). one journalist, an italian, walked over and just calmly stood in front of the wretched men, implying that if the soldiers shot them, they would have to shoot him too. finally some officers arrived and defused the explosive situation, and ju