人教版英语选修7课文

1、选修七Unit 1 Livi ng wellMarty storyHi, my n ame is Marty Field ing and I guess you could saythat I am 6ne in a million. ”n other words, there are notmany people like me. You see, I have a muscle diseasewhich makes me very weak, so I can run or climb stairsas quickly as other people. In additi on, some

2、times I amvery clumsy and drop things or bump into furniture.Unfortun ately, the doctors don know how to make mebetter, but I am very outgo ing and have lear ned to adaptto my disability. My motto is: live one day at a time.Un til I was ten years old I was the same as every oneelse. I used to climb

3、trees, swim and play football. In fact,I used to dream about play ing professi onal football andpossibly represe nting my country in the World Cup. ThenI started to get weaker and weaker, un til I could onlyenjoy football from a bench at the stadium .In the end Iwent into hospital for medical tests.

4、 I stayed there for nearly three mon ths. I think I had at least a billi on tests, includi ng one in which they cut out a piece of muscle frommy leg and looked at it un der a microscope. Eve n afterall that, no one could give my disease a n ame and it isdifficult to know what the future holds.One pr

5、oblem is that I don look any different fromother people. So sometimes some childre n in myprimary school would laugh, whe n I got out of breathafter running a short way or had to stop and rest halfwayup the stairs. Sometimes I was too weak to go to schoolso my educati on suffered. Every time I retur

6、 ned after anabse nee, I felt stupid because I was behi nd the others.My life is a lot easier at high school because myfellow stude nts have accepted me. The few who cannotsee the real pers on in side my body do not make meanno yed, and I just ignore them. All in all I have a goodlife. I am happy to

7、 have found many things I can do, likewriti ng and computer program ming. My ambiti on is towork for a firm that develops computer software whe n Igrow up. Last year I inven ted a computer football gameand a big compa ny has decided to buy from me. I have avery busy life with no time to sit around f

8、eeli ng sorry formyself. As well as going to movies and football matcheswith my frie nds, I spe nd a lot of time with my pets. I havetwo rabbits, a parrot, a tank full of fish and a tortoise. Tolook after my pets properly takes a lot of time but I find itworthwhile. I also have to do a lot of work,

9、especially if Ihave bee n away for a while.In many ways my disability has helped me grow stronger psychologically and become more in depe nden t. Ihave to work hard to live a no rmal life but it has bee nworth it. If I had a cha nee to say one thing to healthychildre n, it would be this: hav ing a d

10、isability does notmean your life is not satisfy ing. So don feel sorry for thedisabled or make fun of them, and don ignore themeither. Just acceptthem for who they are, and give themen courageme nt to live as rich and full a life as you do.Thank you for read ing my story.Unit 2 RobotsLarry Belmo nt

11、worked for a compa ny that maderobots. Rece ntly it had beg un experime nting with ahousehold robot. It was going to be tested out by Larrywife, Claire.Claire didn want the robot in her house, especiallyas her husba nd would be abse nt for three weeks, butLarry persuade her or allow her to be harmed

12、. It would bea bonus. However, whe n she first saw the robot, she feltalarmed. His n ame wasTony and he seemed more like a huma n tha n a machine. He was tall and han dsome with smooth hair and adeep voice although his facial expressi on neverchanged.On the sec ond morning Tony, weari ng an apron,br

13、ought her breakfast and the n asked her whether she needed help dress ing. She felt embarrassed and quicklytold him to go. It was disturb ing and frighte ning that helooked so huma n.One day, Claire men ti oned that she did n thi nkshe was clever. Tony said that she must feel very unhappy to say tha

14、t. Claire thought it was ridiculous to beoffered sympathy by a robot. But she bega n to trust him.She told him how she was overweight and this made herfeel un happy. Also she felt her homewas ntelega nt eno ugh for some one like Larry who wanted to improve his social positi on. She was nlike Gladys

15、Claffer n, one of the richest and mostpowerful wome n around.As a favor Tony promised to help Claire make herselfsmarter and her home more elega nt. So Claire borroweda pile of books from the library for him to read, or rather,sca n. She looked at his fin gers with won der as they turned each page a

16、nd sudde nly reached for his hand. Shewas amazed by his fingern ails and the soft ness andwarmth of his skin. How absurd, she thought. He was justa mach ine.Tony gave Claire a new haircut and cha nged themakeup she wore. As he was not allowed toaccompa ny her to the shops, he wrote out a list of ite

17、msfor her. Claire went into the city and bought curta ins,cushi ons, a carpet and beddi ng. Then she went into ajeweler shop to buy a n ecklace. Whe n the clerk at thecoun ter was rude to her, she rang Tony up and told theclerk to speak to him. The clerk immediately cha nged hisattitude. Claire tha

18、nked Tony, telli ng him that he was adear ”.As she tur nedaround, there stood Gladys Claffer n. How awful to bediscovered by her, Claire thought. By the amused andsurprised look on her face, Claire knew that Gladysthought she was hav ing an affair. After all, she knewClaire husband name was Larry, n

19、ot Tony.Whe n Claire got home, she wept with an ger in herarmchair. Gladys was everyth ing Claire wan ted to be.You can be like her ” Tony told her and suggested thatshe in vite Gladys and her frie nds to the house the ni ghtbefore he was to leave and Larry was to retur n. By thattime, Tony expected

20、 the house to be completely transformed.Tony worked steadily on the improveme nts.Claire tried to help once but was too clumsy. She fell off aladder and eve n though Tony was in the n ext room, heman aged to catch her in time. He held her firmly in hisarms and she felt the warmth of his body. She sc

21、reamed,pushed him away and ran to her room for the rest of theday.The ni ght of the party arrived. The clock struck eight.The guests would be arriv ing soon and Claire told Tonyto go into ano ther room. At that mome nt, Tony folded hisarms around her, bending his face close to hers. Shecried out Ton

22、y ” and the n heard him declare that he didnwant to leave her the next day and that he felt more than just the desire to please her. Then the front door bellrang. Tony freed her and disappeared from sight. It wasthe n that Claire realized that Tony had ope ned the curtains of the front win dow. Her

23、guests had see n everything!The wome n were impressed by Claire, the houseand the delicious cuis ine. Just before they left, Claireheard Gladys whisperi ng to ano ther woma n that shehad n ever see n anyone so han dsome as Tony. What asweet victory to be en vied by those wome n! She mightnot be as b

24、eautiful as them, butnone of them had such a han dsome lover.Then she remembered- Tony was just a machi ne.She shouted Leave me alone ” and ran to her bed. Shecried all ni ght. The n ext morning a car drove up and tookTony away.The compa ny was very pleased with the report ofTony on his three weeks

25、with Claire. Tony had protecteda huma n being from harm. He had preve nted Clairefrom harm ing herself through her own sense of failure.He had ope ned the curta ins that ni ght so that the otherwome n would see him and Claire, knowing that therewas no risk to Claire marriage. But eve n though Tonyha

26、d bee n so clever, he would have to be rebuilt- youcannot have wome n falli ng in love with machi nes.Unit 3 Un der the seaI was 16 whe n I began work in June 1902 at the whaling stati on. I had heard of the killers that every yearhelped whalers catch huge whales. I thought, at the time,that this wa

27、s just a story but the n I wit nessed it with myown eyes many times.On the after noon I arrived at the stati on, as I was sorting out my accommodati on, I heard a loud no ise comingfrom the bay. We ran dow n to the shore in time to see aneno rmous ani mal opposite us throwi ng itself out of thewater

28、 and the n crashi ng dow n aga in. It was black andwhite and fish-shaped.Without paus ing we jumped into the boat with theother whalers and headed out into the bay. I lookeddow n into the water and could see Old Tom swimmi ngby the boat, show ing us the way. A few minu tes later,there was no Tom, so

29、 George started beati ng the waterwith his oar and there was Tom, circli ng back to the boat,leadi ng us to the hunt aga in.Using a telescope we could see that someth ing washappe ning. As we drew closer, I could see a whale beingattacked by a pack of about six other killers. The killersover there a

30、re throwi ng themselves on top of the whaleblow-hole to stop it breathi ng. And those others arestopp ing it div ing or flee ing out to sea. George told me,pointing towards the hunt. And just at that mome nt, themost extraord inary thi ng happe ned. The killers startedracing betwee n our boat and wh

31、ale just like a pack ofexcited dogs. Although Old Tom and other killers werefierce hun ters, they n ever harmed or attacked people. Infact, they protected them. There was one day whe n wewere out in the bay duri ng a hunt and James waswashed off the boat.The sea was rough that day and it was difficu

32、lt to handle the boat. The waves were carry ing James further andfurther away from us. From James face, I could see hewas terrified of being aba ndoned by us. Then sudde nly Isaw a shark. It took over half an hour to get the boat backto James, and whe n we approached him, I saw Jamesbeing firmly hel

33、d up in the water by Old Tom. I couldn believe my eyes. There were shouts of Well done, OldTom ” andThank God ” as we pulled James back into the boat. Andthe n Old Tom was off and back to the hunt where theother killers were still attack ing the whale.Unit 4 Shari ngA Letter homeDear Rosemary,Thanks

34、 for your letter, which took a fortni ght to arrive.It was won derful to hear from you. I know you are dyingto hear all about my life here, so Iein cluded some photos which will help you picture theplaces I talk about.You asked about my high school. Well, itsa bushschool- the classrooms are made of

35、bamboo and theroofs of grass. It takes me only a few minu tes to walk toschool dow n a muddy track. Whe n I reach the schoolgrounds there are lots of good morning ” for me from theboys. Many of them have walked a long way, sometimesup to two hours, to get to school.There is no electricity or water a

36、nd eve n notextbooks either. I am still trying to adapt to these con ditions. However, one thing is for sure, I have become moreimagi native in my teach ing. Scie nee is my most challenging subject as my stude nts have no con cept of doingexperime nts. In fact there is no equipme nt, and if I n eedw

37、ater I have to carry it from my house in a bucket! Theother day I was show ing the boys the weekly chemistryexperime nt whe n, before I knew it, the mixture wasbubbli ng over everywhere! The boys who had n evercome across anything like this before started jump ingout of the win dows. Sometimes I won

38、 der how releva ntchemistry is to these stude nts, most of whom will begoing back to their villages after Year 8 any way. To behon est, I doubt whether I am making any differenee tothese boys lives at all.You asked whether I m gett ing to know any localpeople. That is actually quite difficult as I d

39、on speakmuch of the local En glish dialect yet. But last weeke ndano ther teacher, Jenny, and I did visit a village which isthe home of one of the boys. It was my first visit to aremote village. We walked for two and a half hours to getthere- first up a mountain to a ridge from where we hadfan tasti

40、c views and the n dow n a steep path to the valleybelow. Whe n we arrived at the village, Tommother, Kiak,who had bee n pulli ng weeds in her garde n, startedcrying.We shook hands with all the villagers. Every one seemedto be a relative of Tom.Tomfather, led us to his house, a low bamboo hut withgra

41、ss stick ing out of the roof- this shows it is a manshouse. The hut was round, not rectangle like the schoolbuildi ngs. There were no win dows and the doorway wasjust big eno ugh to get through. The hut was dark in sideso it took time for our eyes to adjust. There was afireplace in the cen tre of th

42、e hut n ear the doorway. Theonly possessi ons I could see were one broom a few tinplates and cups and a couple of jars. Outside Mukap wasbuild ing a fire.Once the fire was going, he laid stones on it. Whe n hot,he placed them in an empty oil drum with sweet potato,corn and gree ns. It smells delicio

43、us. We ate in side thehut sitt ing round the fire. I love liste ning to the familysoftly talki ng to each other in their Ian guage, eve nthough I could not participate in the con versati on.Later, I no ticed a tin sta nding upside dow n on the grillover the fire. After a short time Tom threw it out

44、of thedoorway. I was puzzled. Tom told me that the can washeated to dry out the leftover food. They believe that anyleftovers attract evil spirits in the ni ght, so the food isdried up in the can and the can is the n throw n out of thehut. Otherwise they donwaste anything.We left the village the n e

45、xt morning after many goodbyesand firm han dshakes. My muscles were ach ing and mykn ees shak ing as we climbed dow n the mou ntaintowards home. That eve ning I fell happily into bed. It wassuch a privilege to have spent a day with Tom family.It is gett ing late and I have to prepare tomorrow lesson

46、s and do some paperwork. Please write soon. Love,JoeUnit 5 Travelli ng abroadChin ese stude nt fitti ng in wellSix mon ths ago, Xie lei said goodbye to her familyand frie nds in China and boarded a pla ne forLondon. It was the first time she had ever left hermotherla nd. After gett ing her visa she

47、was very excitedbecause she had dreamed of this day for so long. But shewas also very n ervous as she did n know what toexpect. Xie lei told me whe n I saw her wait ing in a queueat the stude nt can tee n betwee n lectures.Xie lei, who is 21 years old, has come to our university to study for a bus i

48、n ess qualificati on. She ishalfway through the preparati on year, which most foreign stude nts complete before appl ying for a degreecourse. Xie lei highly recomme nds it. She said thepreparati on course is most ben eficial and study ing hereis quite differe nt from study ing in China, so you n eed

49、some preparati on first.She expla ined that It was not just study that wasdifficult. You had to get used to a whole new way of life,which could take up all your concen trati on in the beginning. The girl, who had lived all her life in the same cityin China. She told me that she had had to learn almo

50、steverythi ng aga in. She added sometimes she felt like achild and had to lear n how to use the phone, how to paybus fare, and how to ask a shopkeeper for thi ngs she didn know the En glish for. Whe n she got lost and had toask a passer-by for directi ons, she did not always understa nd because they

51、 did not talk like they do on ourliste ning tapes.She has lived with a host family who give her lots ofgood advice. Although some foreig n stude nts live instude nt accommodati on or apartme nts, some chooseto board with En glish families. Liv ing with host families, in which there may be other college stude nts, gives herthe cha nee to lear n more about the new culture. Sheexpla ined whe n she heard an idiom that she didnunderstand, she could ask her hos