Before Reading 1. Spot Dictation 2. Background Information Carl Sagan Smallpox Thomas Jefferson Guglielmo Marconi The Montreal Protocol The Big Bang Theory 3. Warm-up Questions 4. Discussion 5. Topic-related Prediction
Spot Dictation Directions: Listen to the following passage and fill in the blanks. In the first half of the 20 th century, a ______ stream of technical steady innovation _____ people’s lives — the automobile, the transformed Drudgery airplane, farm machinery, the washing machine. . . ____ and limitations were fast giving way to freedom and possibilities. In many ways, new technologies were no longer a surprise. Then came a new astonished machine — the computer — which _____ the world and promised to remove other forms of drudgery from life, such as ______ tedious calculations or assembly line tasks. The computer soon _____ evolved from an elaborate calculator to a _______ system with enormous complex capability. The computer’s ______ would prove to be immense, a impact fact recognized by the magazine Time in 1982, when it _______ the dubbed computer “Man of the Year”. Before the century was over, the computer had become an _______ part of every major industry, and integral had begun to open new worlds through the Internet.
Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan is a professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He has played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, and Voyager spacecraft expeditions to the planets, for which he received the NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and for Distinguished Public Service. His research on the origin of life began in the 1950 s. As a scientist trained in both astronomy and biology, Dr. Sagan has made extraordinary contributions to the study of planetary atmospheres, planetary surfaces, the history of the Earth, and exobiology. Many of the most productive planetary scientists working today are his present and former students and associates.
His book Cosmos was the best-selling science book ever published in the English language. His novel Contact is soon to be a major motion picture. Dr. Sagan has received the Pulitzer Prize, the Oersted Medal, and many other awards — including eighteen honorary degrees from American colleges and universities — for his contributions to science, literature, education, and the protection of the environment.
Smallpox is a serious, contagious, and sometimes fatal infectious disease. There is no specific treatment for smallpox, and the only prevention is vaccination. The name smallpox is derived from the Latin word for “spotted” and refers to the raised bumps that appear on the face and body of an infected person. Smallpox outbreaks have occurred from time to time for thousands of years, but the disease is now almost eradicated after a successful worldwide vaccination program.
Thomas Jefferson wished to be remembered for three achievements in his public life. He had served as governor of Virginia, as U. S. minister to France, as Secretary of State under George Washington, as vice-president in the administration of John Adams, and as president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. On his tombstone, however, which he designed and for which he wrote the inscription, there is no mention of these offices. Rather, it reads that Thomas Jefferson was “the author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia” and, as he requested, “not a word more”.
Guglielmo Marconi (1874 – 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer and inventor. He was born in Bologna, Italy and was educated at the University of Bologna. As early as 1890 he became interested in wireless telegraphy, and by 1895 he had developed an apparatus with which he succeeded in sending signals to a point a few kilometers away by means of a directional antenna. In 1901 he communicated signals across the Atlantic Ocean. He has been the recipient of honorary doctorates of several universities and many other international honors and awards, among them the Nobel Prize in Physics, which in 1909 he shared with German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun.
The Montreal Protocol Global cooperation for the protection of the stratospheric ozone layer began with the negotiation of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, which concluded in 1985. The details of the international agreement were defined in the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The Montreal Protocol was signed in September 1987 and became effective in 1989. It contains provisions for regular review of the adequacy of control measures that are based on assessments of evolving scientific, environmental, technical, and economic information.
The Big Bang Theory is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to theory, the universe was created sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from a cosmic explosion called the Big Bang that hurled matter and in all directions. The Big Bang was initially suggested because it explains why distant galaxies are traveling away from us at great speeds. The theory also predicts the existence of cosmic background radiation (the glow left over from the explosion itself). The Big Bang Theory received its strongest confirmation when this radiation was discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who later won the Nobel Prize for this discovery.
Although the Big Bang Theory is widely accepted, it probably will never be proved; consequently, leaving a number of tough unanswered questions.
Warm-up Questions 1. What, in your mind, was the greatest achievement in the 20 th century? 2. What do you think was the most serious problem we human beings faced in the 20 th century? 3. Who do you think was the greatest scientist in the 20 th century? 4. What do you think was the most important invention of the 20 th century?
Discussion Directions: Discuss in pairs or groups the following topic. No one can deny the importance of science and technology in the human history. However, some people believe that science and technology is a sword with two razor-sharp edges. How far do you agree with this viewpoint? Give your reasons.
Topic-related Prediction The title of the text is “The Twentieth Century” and the author is an American astronomer. From the title and the author, predict what the text may be about, what the author may emphasize in the text, and what message the author may intend to convey.
Global Reading 1. Part Division of the Text 2. Further Understanding For Part 1 For Part 2 For Part 3 For Part 4 Questions and Answers Table Completion Heading Matching True or False 3. Text Analysis
Part Division of the Text Parts Paragraph(s) Main Ideas 1 1 three broad innovations of the 20 th century 2 2~8 unprecedented means to save, prolong, and enhance life 3 9~13 unprecedented means to destroy life 4 14~25 unprecedented insights into the nature of ourselves and the Universe
Questions and Answers 1. What are three broad innovations of the 20 th century? 1. unprecedented means to save, prolong, and enhance life 2. unprecedented means to destroy life 3. unprecedented insights into the nature of ourselves and the Universe 2. Why does the author hold that science and technology is a sword with two razor-sharp edges? Science and technology has brought forth the three broad innovations, the first two of which are opposite to each other: one can save, prolong and enhance life, while the other can destroy life. Therefore, science and technology is a sword with two razor-sharp edges.
Table Completion Scan this part and fill in the blanks by listing the causes of “unprecedented means to save, prolong, and enhance life”. Unprecedented means to save, prolong, and enhance life Causes Effects plant and animal genetics and behavior, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, preservatives, plows, combines and other agricultural implements, irrigation — and refrigeration in trucks, railway cars, stores, and homes By the end of the 20 th century, there about six billion people in the world. The agricultural technology and the science that underlies it helps us to feed them. refrigeration in trucks, railway cars, stores, and homes many of the most striking advances in agricultural technology — including the “Green Revolution”
Causes public health measures acceptance of the germ theory of disease antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals genetics and molecular biology medical science comparatively inexpensive birth control methods Effects They enormously improved the wellbeing of people all over the world. They permit women safely to control their reproductive destinies, and are working the emancipation of half of the human species. They permit major declines in the perilously increasing populations in many countries.
Causes Effects They made possible the pros and radio, television, compact cons of global entertainment, discs, telephones, fax multinational corporations, and machines, and computer direct access to the political and information networks religious views of other cultures. the introduction of mass- It has brought the world’s literature and market paperback books the insights of its greatest thinkers into in the 1940 s the lives of ordinary people. paper clips, ballpoint pens, computers, dictating and copying machines, microwave The technology has ovens, vacuum cleaners, dish and clothes eliminated drudgery, washers and driers, widespread interior and created more leisure street lights, automobiles, machine tools, time, and enhanced assembly line manufacturing, and enormous the lives of many. construction equipment
Heading Matching Scan this part and match the statements A-J with the three subheadings 1 -3. Unprecedented Means to Destroy Life 1. The means of making war, of mass killings, of the annihilations of whole peoples, has reached unprecedented levels in the twentieth century. 2. Our technology has become so powerful that not only on purpose but inadvertently we have become able to alter the environment on a large scale, and threaten many species on Earth, our own included. 3. Ethnocentric hostility has been common on every continent.
A. The accumulation of unprecedentedly lethal weapons does not bode well for the human future. B. We are performing unprecedented experiments on the global environment and in general hoping against hope that the problems will solve themselves and go away. C. By 1970, some 70, 000 nuclear weapons had been accumulated, many of which were able to reach virtually any part of the world, and each warhead powerful enough to destroy a large city. D. But in many areas, the progress in environmental protection has been slow to dismal. E. Only in the twentieth century has technology made killing on such a scale. F. We will be able to annihilate the global civilization into the foreseeable future.
G. The Nazis had a list of groups they set out to systematically exterminate: Jews, gays and lesbians, socialists and communists, the handicapped, and people of African origin. H. In addition, deadly chemical and biological weapons are in many hands worldwide. I. Over 150 million human beings have been killed in warfare and by the direct orders of national leaders in the twentieth century. J. Systematic attempts to annihilate whole ethnic groups have occurred — most notably in Nazi Germany. Sub-heading 1: A, C, F, H, I Sub-heading 2: B, D Sub-heading 3: E, G, J
True or False ( T ) 1. The nature of atoms was not known until the 20 th century. ( F ) 2. Even now, we know nothing about the age of the Earth and the time of the origin of life on our planet. We are quite sure that the Earth is about 4. 6 billion years old and life on the Earth began roughly 4 billion years ago. ( T ) 3. Chimpanzees are the closest relatives to human beings and we share with them a recent common ancestor. ( F ) 4. Our knowledge of biology, chemistry, and physics is far from enough for the understanding of the nature of the Universe. Therefore, the knowledge is valueless. Our knowledge of biology, chemistry, and physics is very valuable in that the knowledge may contribute greatly to our understanding of the nature of the Universe. ( T ) 5. At the beginning of the 20 th century, we used to think that the Milky Way was the only galaxy, but later we got to know there are numerous other galaxies in the Universe.
Questions and Answers 1. What is the writing style of the text? Exposition. 2. What is theme of the text? The advances in science and technology in the 20 th century and their positive and negative effects on human society. 3. What method does the author employ to make the text coherent? The author uses three subtitles to keep the text well-knitted.
Carl Sagan reviews what he sees as the three most dramatic changes brought about in the course of the last century: the increased power to preserve and improve life; the alarming growth in our ability to destroy life; and the great advances made in our knowledge of ourselves and our universe.
The Twentieth Century Carl Sagan The twentieth century will be remembered for three broad innovations: unprecedented means to save, prolong, and enhance life; unprecedented means to destroy life, including for the first time putting our global civilization at risk; and unprecedented insights into the nature of ourselves and the Universe. All three of these developments have been brought forth by science and technology, a sword with two razor-sharp edges. All three have roots in the distant past.
Saving, Prolonging, and Enhancing Human Life Until about ten thousand years ago, with the invention of agriculture and the domestication of animals, the human food supply was limited to fruits and vegetables in the natural environment and game animals. But the sparsity of naturally grown foodstuffs was such that the Earth could maintain no more than about 10 million or so of us. In contrast, by the end of the twentieth century, there will be six billion people. That means that 99. 9 percent of us owe our lives to agricultural technology and the science that underlies it — plant and animal genetics and behavior, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, preservatives, plows, combines and other agricultural implements, irrigation — and refrigeration in trucks, railway cars, stores, and homes. Many of the most striking advances in agricultural technology — including the “Green Revolution” — are products of the twentieth century.
Through urban and rural sanitation, clean water, other public health measures, acceptance of the germ theory of disease, antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals, and genetics and molecular biology, medical science has enormously improved the wellbeing of people all over the world — but especially in the developed countries. Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide, the area of the Earth in which malaria flourishes shrinks year by year, and diseases I remember from my childhood, such as scarlet fever and polio, are almost gone today. Among the most important twentieth-century inventions are comparatively inexpensive birth control methods — which, for the first time, permit women safely to control their reproductive destinies, and are working the emancipation of half of the human species. They permit major declines in the perilously increasing populations in many countries.
It is also true that the chemicals and radiation produced by our technology have induced new diseases and are implicated in cancer. The global proliferation of cigarettes leads to an estimated 3 million deaths a year (all of course preventable). By 2020, the number is estimated, by the World Health Organization, to reach 10 million a year. But technology has given much more than it has taken away. The clearest sign of this is that life expectancy in the United States and Western Europe in 1901 was about 45 years, while today it is approaching 80 years, a little more for women, a little less for men. Life expectancy is probably the single most effective index of quality of life: If you’re dead, you’re probably not having a good time. That said, there are still a billion of us without enough to eat, and 40, 000 children dying needlessly every day on our planet.
Through radio, television, compact discs, telephones, fax machines, and computer information networks, technology has profoundly changed the face of popular culture. It has made possible the pros and cons of global entertainment, multinational corporations with loyalties to no particular country, and direct access to the political and religious views of other cultures. The introduction of mass-market paperback books in the 1940 s has brought the world’s literature and the insights of its greatest thinkers, present and past, into the lives of ordinary people. And even if the price of paperback books is soaring today, there are still great bargains, such as the dollar-a-volume classics from Dover Books. Along with progress in literacy such trends are the allies of Jeffersonian democracy. On the other hand what passes for literacy in America in the late twentieth century is a very rudimentary knowledge of the English language, and television in particular tends to seduce the mass population away from reading. In pursuit of the profit motive,
it has dumbed itself down to lowest-common-denominator programming — instead of rising up to teach and inspire. From paper clips, ballpoint pens, computers, dictating and copying machines, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, dish and clothes washers and driers, widespread interior and street lights, to automobiles, machine tools, assembly line manufacturing, and enormous construction equipment, the technology of our century has eliminated drudgery, created more leisure time, and enhanced the lives of many. It has also upended many of the routines and conventions that were prevalent in 1901.
The use of potentially life-saving technology differs from nation to nation. The United States, for example, has the highest infant mortality of any industrial nation. It has more young black men in prison than in college, and a greater percentage of its citizens in jail than any other industrial nation. Its students routinely perform poorly on standardized science and mathematics tests when compared with students of the same age in other countries. The disparity in real income between the rich and the poor and the decline of the middle class have been growing swiftly over the last decade and a half. The United States is last among industrialized nations in the fraction of the national income given each year to help people in other countries. High technology industry has been fleeing American shores. After leading the world in almost all these respects in mid-century, there are some signs of decline in the United States at century’s end. The quality of leadership can be pointed to, but so can the dwindling taste for critical thinking and political action in its citizens.
Totalitarian and Military Technology The means of making war, of mass killings, of the annihilations of whole peoples, has reached unprecedented levels in the twentieth century. In 1901, there were no military aircraft or missiles, and the most powerful artillery could fire a shell a few miles and kill a handful of people. By the second third of the twentieth century, some 70, 000 nuclear weapons had been accumulated. Many of them were fitted to strategic rocket fired from silos or boosters, submarines, able to reach virtually any part of the world, and each warhead powerful enough to destroy a large city. Today we are in the throes of major arms reductions, both in warheads and delivery systems, by the United States and the former Soviet Union, but we will be able to annihilate the global civilization into the foreseeable future.
In addition, deadly chemical and biological weapons are in many hands worldwide. In a century bubbling over with fanaticism, ideological certainty, and mad leaders, this accumulation of unprecedentedly lethal weapons does not bode well for the human future. Over 150 million human beings have been killed in warfare and by the direct orders of national leaders in the twentieth century. Our technology has become so powerful that not only on purpose but inadvertently we have become able to alter the environment on a large scale, and threaten many species on Earth, our own included. The simple fact is that we are performing unprecedented experiments on the global environment and in general hoping against hope that the problems will solve themselves and go away. The one bright spot is the Montreal Protocol by which the industrial nations of the world agreed to phase out production of CFCs and other chemicals that attack the ozone layer. But in other areas progress has been slow to dismal.
Ethnocentric hostility has been common on every continent. Systematic attempts to annihilate whole ethnic groups have occurred — most notably in Nazi Germany, but also in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Similar tendencies have existed throughout human history, but only in the twentieth century has technology made killing on such a scale practical. Strategic bombing, missiles, and long-range artillery have the “advantage” that the combatants need not come face-to-face with the agony they have worked. Their consciences need not trouble them. The global military budget at the end of the twentieth century is close to a trillion dollars a year. Think of how much human good could be purchased for even a fraction of that sum.
The twentieth century has been marked by the collapse of monarchies and empires and the rise of at least nominal democracies — as well as many ideological and military dictatorships. The Nazis had a list of groups they set out to systematically exterminate: Jews, gays and lesbians, socialists and communists, the handicapped, and people of African origin (of whom there were almost none in Germany). Thomas Jefferson taught that a democracy was impractical unless the people were educated. No matter how stringent the protections of the people might be in constitutions or common law, there would always be a temptation, Jefferson thought, for the powerful, the wealthy, and the unscrupulous to undermine the ideal of government run by and for ordinary citizens. The remedy is vigorous support for the expression of unpopular views, widespread literacy, substantive debate, a common familiarity with critical thinking, and skepticism of the claims of those in authority — which are all also central to the scientific method.
The Revelations of Science Every branch of science has made stunning advances in the twentieth century. The very foundations of physics have been revolutionized by the special and general theories of relativity, and by quantum mechanics. It was in this century that the nature of atoms was first understood. Fission and fusion have made possible the corresponding nuclear weapons, fission power plants (a notunmixed blessing), and the prospect of fusion power plants. An understanding of radioactive decay has given us definitive knowledge of the age of the Earth (about 4. 6 billion years) and of the time of the origin of life on our planet (roughly 4 billion years ago).
One cause for scientific celebration in the twentieth century is the discovery of the nature and function of DNA — the key molecule responsible for heredity in humans and in most other plants and animals. We have learned to read the genetic code and in increasing numbers of organisms we have mapped all the genes and know what functions of the organisms most of them are in charge of. Scientists are well on their way to mapping the human genome — an accomplishment with enormous potential for both good and evil. The most significant aspect of the DNA story is that the fundamental processes of life now seem fully understandable in terms of physics and chemistry. No life force, no spirit, no soul seems to be involved. Likewise in neurophysiology: Tentatively, the mind seems to be the expression of the hundred trillion neural connections in the brain, plus a few simple chemicals.
Molecular biology now permits us to compare any two species, gene by gene, molecular building block by molecular building block, to uncover the degree of relatedness. These experiments have shown conclusively the deep similarity of all beings on Earth and have confirmed the general relations previously found by evolutionary biology. For example, humans and chimpanzees share 99. 6 percent of their active genes, confirming that chimps are our closest relatives, and that we share with them a recent common ancestor. In the twentieth century for the first time field researchers have lived with other primates, carefully observing their behavior in their natural habitats, and discovering compassion, foresight, ethics, hunting, guerrilla warfare, politics, tool use, tool manufacture, music,
rudimentary nationalism, and a host of other characteristics previously thought to be uniquely human. The debate on chimpanzee language abilities is still ongoing. But there is a chimp in Atlanta named Kanzi who easily uses a symbolic language of several hundred characters and who has also taught himself to manufacture stone tools. Many of the most striking recent advances in chemistry are connected with biology, but let me mention one that is of much broader significance: the nature of the chemical bond has been understood, the forces in quantum physics that determine which atoms like to link up with which other atoms, how strongly, and in what configuration. It has also been found that radiation applied to not implausible primitive atmospheres for the Earth and other planets generate amino acids and other key building blocks of life.
Nucleic acids and other molecules in the test tube have been found to reproduce themselves and reproduce their mutations. Thus substantial progress has been made in the twentieth century toward understanding and generating the origin of life. Much of biology is reducible to chemistry and much of chemistry is reducible to physics. This is not yet completely true, but the fact that it is even a little bit true is a most important insight into the nature of the Universe. Physics and chemistry, coupled with the most powerful computers on Earth, have tried to understand the climate and general circulation of the Earth’s atmosphere through time. This powerful tool is used to evaluate the future consequences of the continued emission of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere. Meanwhile, much easier, meteorological satellites permit weather prediction at least days in advance, avoiding billions of dollars in crop failures every year.
At the beginning of the twentieth century astronomers were stuck at the bottom of an ocean of turbulent air and left to peer at distant worlds. By the end of the twentieth century great telescopes are in Earth orbit peering at the heavens in gamma rays, X rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, and radio waves. Marconi’s first radio broadcast across the Atlantic Ocean occurred in 1901. We have now used radio to communicate with four spacecraft beyond the outermost known planet of our Solar System, and to hear the natural radio emission from quasars 8 and 10 billion light-years away — as well as the so-called black body background radiation, the radio remnants of the Big Bang, the vast explosion that began the current incarnation of the Universe. Exploratory spacecraft have been launched to study 70 worlds and to land on three of them.
The century has seen the almost mythic accomplishment of sending 12 humans to the Moon and bringing them, and over a hundred kilograms of moon rocks, back safely. Robotic craft have confirmed that Venus, driven by a massive greenhouse effect, has a surface temperature of almost 900°Fahrenheit; that 4 billion years ago Mars had an Earth-like climate. Four of our spacecraft are on their way to the stars. Other planets have recently been found around other stars. Our Sun is revealed to be in the remote outskirts of a vast, lens-shaped galaxy comprising some 400 billion other suns. At the beginning of the century it was thought that the Milky Way was the only galaxy. We now recognize that there are one hundred billion others, all fleeing one from another as if they are the remnants of an enormous explosion, the Big Bang. Exotic objects have been discovered that were not even dreamt of at the turn of the century — pulsars, quasars, black holes. Within observational reach may be the answers to some of the deepest questions humans have ever asked — on the origin, nature, and fate of the entire Universe.
Perhaps the most wrenching by-product of the scientific revolution has been to destroy many of our most cherished and most comforting beliefs. The tidy world of our ancestors has been replaced by a cold, immense, indifferent Universe in which humans are relegated to obscurity. But I see the emergence in our consciousness of a Universe of a magnificence, and an intricate, elegant order far beyond anything our ancestors imagined. And if much about the Universe can be understood in terms of a few simple laws of Nature, those wishing to believe in God can certainly ascribe those beautiful laws to a Reason underpinning all of Nature. My own view is that it is far better to understand the Universe as it really is than to pretend to a Universe as we might wish it to be. Whether we will acquire the understanding and wisdom necessary to come to grips with the scientific revelations of the twentieth century will be the most profound challenge of the twenty-first.
The Twentieth Century Carl Sagan The twentieth century will be remembered for three broad innovations: unprecedented means to save, prolong, and enhance life; unprecedented means to destroy life, including for the first time putting our global civilization at risk; and unprecedented insights into the nature of ourselves and the Universe. All three of these developments have been brought forth by science and technology, a sword with two razor-sharp edges. All three have roots in the distant past.
Saving, Prolonging, and Enhancing Human Life Until about ten thousand years ago, with the invention of agriculture and the domestication of animals, the human food supply was limited to fruits and vegetables in the natural environment and game animals. But the sparsity of naturally grown foodstuffs was such that the Earth could maintain no more than about 10 million or so of us. In contrast, by the end of the twentieth century, there will be six billion people. That means that 99. 9 percent of us owe our lives to agricultural technology and the science that underlies it — plant and animal genetics and behavior, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, preservatives, plows, combines and other agricultural implements, irrigation — and refrigeration in trucks, railway cars, stores, and homes. Many of the most striking advances in agricultural technology — including the “Green Revolution” — are products of the twentieth century.
Through urban and rural sanitation, clean water, other public health measures, acceptance of the germ theory of disease, antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals, and genetics and molecular biology, medical science has enormously improved the wellbeing of people all over the world — but especially in the developed countries. Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide, the area of the Earth in which malaria flourishes shrinks year by year, and diseases I remember from my childhood, such as scarlet fever and polio, are almost gone today. Among the most important twentieth-century inventions are comparatively inexpensive birth control methods — which, for the first time, permit women safely to control their reproductive destinies, and are working the emancipation of half of the human species. They permit major declines in the perilously increasing populations in many countries.
Through radio, television, compact discs, telephones, fax machines, and computer information networks, technology has profoundly changed the face of popular culture. It has made possible the pros and cons of global entertainment, multinational corporations with loyalties to no particular country, and direct access to the political and religious views of other cultures. The introduction of mass-market paperback books in the 1940 s has brought the world’s literature and the insights of its greatest thinkers, present and past, into the lives of ordinary people. And even if the price of paperback books is soaring today, there are still great bargains, such as the dollar-a-volume classics from Dover Books. Along with progress in literacy such trends are the allies of Jeffersonian democracy. On the other hand what passes for literacy in America in the late twentieth century is a very rudimentary knowledge of the English language, and television in particular tends to seduce the mass population away from reading. In pursuit of the profit motive,
it has dumbed itself down to lowest-common-denominator programming — instead of rising up to teach and inspire. From paper clips, ballpoint pens, computers, dictating and copying machines, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, dish and clothes washers and driers, widespread interior and street lights, to automobiles, machine tools, assembly line manufacturing, and enormous construction equipment, the technology of our century has eliminated drudgery, created more leisure time, and enhanced the lives of many. It has also upended many of the routines and conventions that were prevalent in 1901.
The use of potentially life-saving technology differs from nation to nation. The United States, for example, has the highest infant mortality of any industrial nation. It has more young black men in prison than in college, and a greater percentage of its citizens in jail than any other industrial nation. Its students routinely perform poorly on standardized science and mathematics tests when compared with students of the same age in other countries. The disparity in real income between the rich and the poor and the decline of the middle class have been growing swiftly over the last decade and a half. The United States is last among industrialized nations in the fraction of the national income given each year to help people in other countries. High technology industry has been fleeing American shores. After leading the world in almost all these respects in mid-century, there are some signs of decline in the United States at century’s end. The quality of leadership can be pointed to, but so can the dwindling taste for critical thinking and political action in its citizens.
Totalitarian and Military Technology The means of making war, of mass killings, of the annihilations of whole peoples, has reached unprecedented levels in the twentieth century. In 1901, there were no military aircraft or missiles, and the most powerful artillery could fire a shell a few miles and kill a handful of people. By the second third of the twentieth century, some 70, 000 nuclear weapons had been accumulated. Many of them were fitted to strategic rocket fired from silos or boosters, submarines, able to reach virtually any part of the world, and each warhead powerful enough to destroy a large city. Today we are in the throes of major arms reductions, both in warheads and delivery systems, by the United States and the former Soviet Union, but we will be able to annihilate the global civilization into the foreseeable future.
In addition, deadly chemical and biological weapons are in many hands worldwide. In a century bubbling over with fanaticism, ideological certainty, and mad leaders, this accumulation of unprecedentedly lethal weapons does not bode well for the human future. Over 150 million human beings have been killed in warfare and by the direct orders of national leaders in the twentieth century. Our technology has become so powerful that not only on purpose but inadvertently we have become able to alter the environment on a large scale, and threaten many species on Earth, our own included. The simple fact is that we are performing unprecedented experiments on the global environment and in general hoping against hope that the problems will solve themselves and go away. The one bright spot is the Montreal Protocol by which the industrial nations of the world agreed to phase out production of CFCs and other chemicals that attack the ozone layer. But in other areas progress has been slow to dismal.
Ethnocentric hostility has been common on every continent. Systematic attempts to annihilate whole ethnic groups have occurred — most notably in Nazi Germany, but also in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Similar tendencies have existed throughout human history, but only in the twentieth century has technology made killing on such a scale practical. Strategic bombing, missiles, and long-range artillery have the “advantage” that the combatants need not come face-to-face with the agony they have worked. Their consciences need not trouble them. The global military budget at the end of the twentieth century is close to a trillion dollars a year. Think of how much human good could be purchased for even a fraction of that sum.
The twentieth century has been marked by the collapse of monarchies and empires and the rise of at least nominal democracies — as well as many ideological and military dictatorships. The Nazis had a list of groups they set out to systematically exterminate: Jews, gays and lesbians, socialists and communists, the handicapped, and people of African origin (of whom there were almost none in Germany). Thomas Jefferson taught that a democracy was impractical unless the people were educated. No matter how stringent the protections of the people might be in constitutions or common law, there would always be a temptation, Jefferson thought, for the powerful, the wealthy, and the unscrupulous to undermine the ideal of government run by and for ordinary citizens. The remedy is vigorous support for the expression of unpopular views, widespread literacy, substantive debate, a common familiarity with critical thinking, and skepticism of the claims of those in authority — which are all also central to the scientific method.
The Revelations of Science Every branch of science has made stunning advances in the twentieth century. The very foundations of physics have been revolutionized by the special and general theories of relativity, and by quantum mechanics. It was in this century that the nature of atoms was first understood. Fission and fusion have made possible the corresponding nuclear weapons, fission power plants (a notunmixed blessing), and the prospect of fusion power plants. An understanding of radioactive decay has given us definitive knowledge of the age of the Earth (about 4. 6 billion years) and of the time of the origin of life on our planet (roughly 4 billion years ago).
One cause for scientific celebration in the twentieth century is the discovery of the nature and function of DNA — the key molecule responsible for heredity in humans and in most other plants and animals. We have learned to read the genetic code and in increasing numbers of organisms we have mapped all the genes and know what functions of the organisms most of them are in charge of. Scientists are well on their way to mapping the human genome — an accomplishment with enormous potential for both good and evil. The most significant aspect of the DNA story is that the fundamental processes of life now seem fully understandable in terms of physics and chemistry. No life force, no spirit, no soul seems to be involved. Likewise in neurophysiology: Tentatively, the mind seems to be the expression of the hundred trillion neural connections in the brain, plus a few simple chemicals.
rudimentary nationalism, and a host of other characteristics previously thought to be uniquely human. The debate on chimpanzee language abilities is still ongoing. But there is a chimp in Atlanta named Kanzi who easily uses a symbolic language of several hundred characters and who has also taught himself to manufacture stone tools. Many of the most striking recent advances in chemistry are connected with biology, but let me mention one that is of much broader significance: the nature of the chemical bond has been understood, the forces in quantum physics that determine which atoms like to link up with which other atoms, how strongly, and in what configuration. It has also been found that radiation applied to not implausible primitive atmospheres for the Earth and other planets generate amino acids and other key building blocks of life.
At the beginning of the twentieth century astronomers were stuck at the bottom of an ocean of turbulent air and left to peer at distant worlds. By the end of the twentieth century great telescopes are in Earth orbit peering at the heavens in gamma rays, X rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, and radio waves. Marconi’s first radio broadcast across the Atlantic Ocean occurred in 1901. We have now used radio to communicate with four spacecraft beyond the outermost known planet of our Solar System, and to hear the natural radio emission from quasars 8 and 10 billion light-years away — as well as the so-called black body background radiation, the radio remnants of the Big Bang, the vast explosion that began the current incarnation of the Universe. Exploratory spacecraft have been launched to study 70 worlds and to land on three of them.
The century has seen the almost mythic accomplishment of sending 12 humans to the Moon and bringing them, and over a hundred kilograms of moon rocks, back safely. Robotic craft have confirmed that Venus, driven by a massive greenhouse effect, has a surface temperature of almost 900°Fahrenheit; that 4 billion years ago Mars had an Earth-like climate. Four of our spacecraft are on their way to the stars. Other planets have recently been found around other stars. Our Sun is revealed to be in the remote outskirts of a vast, lens-shaped galaxy comprising some 400 billion other suns. At the beginning of the century it was thought that the Milky Way was the only galaxy. We now recognize that there are one hundred billion others, all fleeing one from another as if they are the remnants of an enormous explosion, the Big Bang. Exotic objects have been discovered that were not even dreamt of at the turn of the century — pulsars, quasars, black holes. Within observational reach may be the answers to some of the deepest questions humans have ever asked — on the origin, nature, and fate of the entire Universe.
Perhaps the most wrenching by-product of the scientific revolution has been to destroy many of our most cherished and most comforting beliefs. The tidy world of our ancestors has been replaced by a cold, immense, indifferent Universe in which humans are relegated to obscurity. But I see the emergence in our consciousness of a Universe of a magnificence, and an intricate, elegant order far beyond anything our ancestors imagined. And if much about the Universe can be understood in terms of a few simple laws of Nature, those wishing to believe in God can certainly ascribe those beautiful laws to a Reason underpinning all of Nature. My own view is that it is far better to understand the Universe as it really is than to pretend to a Universe as we might wish it to be. Whether we will acquire the understanding and wisdom necessary to come to grips with the scientific revelations of the twentieth century will be the most profound challenge of the twenty-first.
1. What does “all three of these developments” refer to? Unprecedented means to save, prolong, and enhance life; unprecedented means to destroy life; and unprecedented insights into the nature of ourselves and the Universe. 2. What does “a sword with two razor-sharp edges” in this sentence imply? It implies that the three developments brought forth not only benefits but also damage to the world.
1. What does the pronoun “that” refer to? The pronoun “that” refers to the fact that the Earth could maintain at most 10 million people, but there will be six billion people in the world by the end of the 20 th century. 2. What is implied in the sentence? The overwhelming major part of our lives relies on the development of science and technology in agriculture, without which we could not have survived in the world.
1. What does “birth control methods … for the first time, permit women safely to control their reproductive destinies” imply? Before the birth control methods were invented, women had no ways to control child birth, therefore could not evade the fate of giving birth to children one after another, even though they did not want to have so many children. 2. What does “the emancipation of half of the human species” mean? Thanks to the invention of comparatively inexpensive birth control methods, women are freed from the burden of too many children. In this sense, they are emancipated because they are no longer enslaved by the family burden. 3. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 20世纪最重要的发明之一，乃是相对而言那些并不昂贵的节育手段 —— 它 们使得妇女第一次能够安全地控制自身的生育，起到了解放半数人类的作用。
1. What does this sentence imply? Comparatively speaking, technology has benefited us more than the harm and damage it has brought to us, even though the chemicals and radiation produced by our technology have induced new deadly diseases, such as cancer. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 但技术发展利大于弊。
1. What does “it” refer to? Technology. 2. What does “the pros and cons of global entertainment” mean? The arguments in favor of and against global entertainment. 3. What does “multinational corporations with loyalties to no particular country” mean? The multinational corporations which have no obligations to serve any particular country. 4. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 技术使得人们可以争论娱乐全球化是好是坏，使得跨国公司不再为某一特定 的国家服务，使得人们可以直接听取到来自其他文化的有关政治、宗教的看 法。
1. What does this sentence imply? Generally speaking, industrialized nations are more wealthy. This sentence implies that the United States, wealthy as it is, is the most reluctant, among the industrialized nations, to help people in other countries. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 在每年的国家收入中用于援助别国人民的比例方面，美国在 业化国家中名 列最后。
1. What does the phrase “in the throes of” mean? In the middle of a very difficult situation. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 如今我们正处于美国与前苏联国家在核弹头和发射系统两方面大规模裁减武 器的时期，但我们仍将有可能在可预见的将来把地球文明毁灭殆尽。
1. What does “bode well for” mean? Be a good sign for the future. 2. What does this sentence imply? The accumulation of the deadly weapons which had never been in such a degree in history will be a great threat for the human future. 3. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 这一前所未有的致命武器的积累对人类的未来并非祥和之兆。
1. What does “central to the scientific method” mean? Of utmost importance / Being essential to the scientific method. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 其对策应是不遗余力地支持少数意见的表达，普及教育，开展真正的辩论， 普遍提倡批判性思考，不轻信当权者所言 —— 这些也都是科学方法的真谛。
1. What does “likewise” mean and imply? In the same way; similarly. The word implies that the research findings in neurophysiology prove that no life force, no spirit, or no soul seems to be involved in the fundamental process of life, which is opposite to some religious beliefs. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 在神经生理学领域也同样如此：暂时看来，心智似乎是大脑中无数神经联络 的表现，再加上一些单一的化学物质在起作用罢了。
1. What rhetorical device is used in the sentence? Double negation: not implausible. “Not implausible” is more forceful than “plausible”. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 被发现的还有，包围地球和其他行星的有可能受到辐射的原始气体产生了氨 基酸和其他关键的生命构件。
1. What does this sentence imply? At the beginning of the twentieth century, astronomers had to observe the celestial bodies with their naked eyes, through the chaotic and restless air, without the aid of modern equipment like telescopes. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 在 20世纪初，天文学家只能呆在浩瀚的大气湍流的底层用肉眼窥探遥远 的星球。
1. What does “within observational reach may be the answers” mean? By observation, we may know the answers. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 在可观察到的范围之内，或许存在着一些人类提出过的最深奥的问题—— 有 关整个宇宙的起源、本质及命运 —— 的答案。
1. What does “to understand the Universe as it really is” mean? To have a correct and exact understanding of the Universe according to the facts. 2. What does “to pretend to a Universe as we might wish it to be”? To have a misunderstanding or a false understanding of the Universe because the research findings may not be based on scientific attitudes and methods, but on one’s subjective judgment. 3. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 我本人则认为，实事求是地了解宇宙远比按自己的意愿声称的一个宇宙要好。
1. What does this sentence imply? Our knowledge and wisdom in science and technology gained in the 20 th century will pave the way for our work in the 21 st century. In the 21 st century, we should make proper use of the research findings of the 20 th century, and correct the mistakes and errors we made in the 20 th century. 2. Translate the sentence into Chinese. 我们能否获得必要的知识和智慧以应对 20世纪科学的各种发现将是对 21世纪 的意义最为深远的挑战。
prolong: vt. deliberately make sth. such as a feeling or activity last longer They walked slowly, as if to prolong the wonderful evening. 代表团决定把访问延长一个星期。 The delegation decided to prolong their visit by one week.
underlie: vt. be the cause of sth. , or be the basic thing from which sth. develops The key events which underlie many of the present government’s troubles took place some years ago. 我的决定以众多因素为基础。 Many factors underlie my decision. Psychological problems very often underlie apparently physical disorders.
sanitation: n. the protection of public health by removing and treating waste, dirty water, etc. The main issue of the conference is environmental sanitation. 夏天尤其要注意食品卫生。 In summer, special attention should be paid to food sanitation. Collocations: city sanitation environmental sanitation food sanitation plant sanitation 城市环境卫生 食品卫生 厂卫生
eradicate: vt. completely get rid of sth. such as a disease or a social problem They introduced the scheme in an attempt to eradicate under-age drinking. 他们的目标是消除贫困。 Their goal was to eradicate poverty. CF: eradicate, eliminate & exterminate 这几个动词都有“去除、消灭”的意思。 eradicate 是正式用语，表示彻底消灭已经形成的或根深蒂固的事物（疾病、 社会问题等）。例如： Yellow fever has been eradicated in many countries. 黄热病在许多国家已经绝迹。
eliminate 表示完全除去某物，特别是在不需要或某物没有必要存在时。例如： Our team was eliminated from the competition in the first round. 我们队在竞赛第一轮就被淘汰了。 exterminate 表示杀许多人或者一类的生物从而让这类人或物灭绝。例如： Hunting must be stopped before the species of animal is exterminated. 必须禁猎，否则，这种动物将要灭绝。
perilously: adv. in a way that is dangerous and likely to result in sth. bad soon The motorist was driving perilously along the icy roads. 登山队员冒着危险向山顶攀登。 The mountaineers were perilously climbing to the peak.
compact 1. adj. closely packed or put together; taking little space The house has a compact but well-equipped kitchen. 移动电话变得越来越紧凑小巧了。 Mobile phones have become increasingly compact and exquisite. CF: compact, close, dense & thick 这几个词都是形容词，都有“密集”的意思。 compact 指物体虽然小，但是结构紧凑，在有限的空间里安排的很好。例如： The computer looks compact and functional. 这个电脑看起来小巧而实用。
close 指的是在空间距离中的密集，某物周围或者两个物体之间没有空距或者空 距很小。例如： The soldiers advanced in close formation. 士兵们以紧凑的队形前进。 dense 由许多靠的很近的人或物组成。 例如： A narrow track wound steeply up through dense forest. 一条小路弯弯曲曲得穿过茂密的森林。 thick 指空气中弥漫着某物，使人难以看清或者难以呼吸。 例如： The air was thick with cigarette smoke. 空气里都是香烟的味道。 2. vt. press sth. together so that it becomes smaller or more solid If the soil becomes compacted you might get drainage problems. The rubbish was taken to the reclamation depot to be compacted. 3. n. (formal) an agreement between countries or people The compact between the two companies was terminated last month.
rudimentary: adj. a rudimentary knowledge or understanding of a subject is very simple and basic; rudimentary equipment, methods, systems, etc. are very basic and not advanced He claims that he is an expert in architecture, but the facts prove he has only a rudimentary knowledge in the field. 古埃及人用于建筑寺庙的 具是极为简单粗陋的。 The tools that the ancient Egyptians used to build their temples were extremely rudimentary.
seduce: vt. make sb. want to do sth. by making it seem very attractive or interesting to them The prospects of making quick profit seduced the profiteers into buying the shares. 这位政府官员因为受金钱诱惑而叛国。 The government official was seduced by offer of money into betraying his country. Collocation: seduce sb. into doing sth. 诱使某人做某事
interior 1. n. the inner part or inside of sth. ; the part of a country that is farthest away from the coast The Yangtze River gives access to much of China’s interior. The interior of the house is spacious and bright. 他到内地去了。 He went into the interior of the country. 2. adj. inside or indoors The interior lighting of theatre is inadequate. 这些年来，这座内地城市的基础设施得到了很大的改善。 In these years, the infrastructure of the interior city has improved a lot.
prevalent: adj. common at a particular time, in a particular place, or among a particular group of people In the spring of 2003, SARS was prevalent in some areas of Asia, causing serious disruption to daily life. 坐飞机旅行一年比一年普遍了。 Traveling by aircraft is becoming more prevalent by year. CF: prevalent, prevailing & current 这三个词都是形容词，都有“盛行，流行，普遍”的意思。 prevalent 指在某个时间，某个地点，某一群人中很普遍。例如： Everyone knows that crime is more prevalent in big cities. 人人都知道犯罪现象在大城市更为普遍。
prevailing 指在某个时间某个地点存在或被人们接受。例如： The prevailing opinion seems to be that a trade war can be avoided if both countries make concessions. 最普遍的观点认为贸易战争在两个国家都作出让步的情况下是可避免的。 current 指的是现在正存在或发生的。 例如： In its current state, the house would be worth £ 200, 000. 以房子现在的状态，这个房子值 2万英镑。
disparity: n. a difference between two or more things, especially an unfair one We should try to narrow the economic disparities among regions and industries. 我所做的 作和我所得到的报酬很不相称。 There is great disparity between the amount of work that I do and what I get paid for it. Collocations: disparity in position disparity between mental labour and manual labour disparity in age a great disparity between our strength and the enemy’s 地位悬殊 脑力劳动与体力劳动间的差别 年龄的差距 敌我力量悬殊
annihilate: vt. destroy sb. or sth. completely After a long and bloody battle the army succeeded in annihilating the enemy forces.
ideological: adj. based on strong beliefs or ideas, especially political or economic ideas The two leaders never reach an agreement because of profound ideological differences. 两党之间的意识形态分歧并非总是很明显。 The ideological divisions between the two parties are not always obvious.
inadvertently: adv. without realizing what you are doing The student inadvertently omitted the verb of the sentence. 史密斯太太疏忽大意拨错了电话。 Mrs. Smith inadvertently telephoned the wrong person.
conscience: n. a guilty feeling that you have about sth. bad you have done John did not visit his grandmother when she was dying; he has to live with a guilty conscience for the rest of his life. 他拿走了钱以后，良心使他不安。 His conscience troubled him after he took the money. Collocations: in all conscience have a guilty conscience have a clear (good) conscience consult one’s conscience 公平地说 罪恶感 问心无愧 扪心自问
nominal: adj. 1) officially described as being sth. , when this is not really true Mr. Smith is the nominal head of the local party; in fact he has got no authority at all. 2) a very small sum of money, especially when compared with what sth. would 我租用那小屋只付给他极少的象征性的租金。 I paid him a merely nominal rent for the cottage.
stringent: adj. a stringent law, rule, standard, etc. is very strict and must be obeyed To take the precautions against terrorism, the administrators of the international airport decided to adopt stringent safety measures. 你认为严格的法律能够有效地阻止犯罪吗？ Do you agree that stringent laws can stop crimes?
unscrupulous: adj. behaving in an unfair or dishonest way An unscrupulous peddler sold the old lady some worthless “jewels”. 有些没有道德的雇主以低廉的 资雇佣非法移民牟取暴利。 To obtain huge profits, some unscrupulous employers hire illegal immigrants for very low wages.
revelation: n. a surprising fact about sb. or sth. that was previously secret and is now made known; the act of suddenly making known a surprising fact that had previously been secret The revelation of the thieves’ hiding place by one of their own members caused their capture. 她的真实性格对我来说是一个新发现。 Her true nature was a fresh revelation to me.
definitive: adj. a definitive book, description, etc. is considered to be the best and cannot be improved; a definitive agreement, statement, etc. is one that will not be changed Professor Harrison wrote the definitive book on the formerly controversial subject. The President issued a definitive statement on the crisis.
tentatively: adv. not definite or certain, and may be changed later; done without confidence Perhaps, John suggested tentatively, now that the old lady had been unconscious for two hours, they should send for a doctor. Mary spoke tentatively, scared that someone might interrupt her or criticize her ideas.
configuration: n. the shape or arrangement of the parts of sth. The decorator changed the configuration of the office so that people would have more privacy at their desks. 建筑师说这座古宝塔的构造非常坚固而且精美。 The architect asserted that the ancient pagoda had a very solid and magnificent configuration.
implausible: adj. difficult to believe and therefore unlikely to be true Brown gave us an implausible explanation for his being late for the opening ceremony. 我们发现他的可行性报告中的利润推算不合理。 We found that the profit calculation in his feasibility report was implausible.
turbulent: adj. turbulent air or water moves around a lot All the ships were moored to the docks to avoid the turbulent wave on the sea caused by the imminent typhoon.
incarnation: n. a period of time when sb. or sth. has a particular job, use, etc. ; sb. who has a lot of a particular quality, or represents it 那位领舞的演员简直是美的化身。 The leading dancer is the incarnation of grace.
exotic: adj. sth. that is exotic seems unusual and interesting because it is related to a foreign country The scientists have been observing the growth of some exotic tropical plants in a greenhouse. The visitors were fascinated by the exotic costumes of the African women.
by-product: n. sth. additional that is produced during a natural or industrial process; an unplanned additional result of sth. that you do The substances are valuable by-products obtained in the manufacture of coal-gas. 目前的这种状况是新体制所产生的副产品。 The present situation is the by-product of the new system.
relegate: vt. give sb. or sth. a less important position than before; (British English) if a sports team is relegated, it is moved into a lower division To the boss of the coal mines, profit is of utmost importance; the safety of the miners has been relegated to a secondary position. 我们的球队会被降为乙级队吗？ Will our team be relegated to the second division? 总统把这个棘手的问题委托给经济委员会处理。 The president relegated the delicate problem to the economic committee.
ascribe: vt. claim that sth. is caused by a particular person, situation, etc. The police ascribed the traffic accident to drunken driving of the minibus driver. The prize winner modestly ascribed all the glory to his assistants. 我们不应总把自己的错误归因于客观条件。 We should not always ascribe our errors to objective conditions.
come to (the) grips with understand or deal with sth. difficult I misinterpreted the article because I failed to come to the grips with the actual subject matter. They will come to the grips with the problem very soon. 约翰从未处理过这样令人困窘的情况。 John had never come to grips with such an embarrassing situation before.
After Reading 1. Useful Expressions 2. Listening Comprehension 3. Debate 4. Discussion 5. Writing Practice 6. Picture Talking 7. Proverbs and Quotations
Useful Expressions 1. 双刃剑 a sword with two razor-sharp edges 2. 遥远的往昔 the distant past 3. 驯养动物 domestication of animals 4. 绿色革命 the Green Revolution 5. 预期寿命 life expectancy 6. 生活质量指数 index of quality of life 7. 赞成与反对 pros and cons 8. 平民百姓 ordinary people 9. 追逐利润 pursuit of profit
10. 充满 bubble over with 11. 妄想 hope against hope 12. 亮点 bright spot 13. 逐步终止 phase out 14. 批判性思考 critical thinking 15. 惊人的成就 stunning advances 16. 相对论 theories of relativity 17. 裂变和聚变 fission and fusion 18. 基因遗传密码 genetic code
19. 野外研究人员 field researchers 20. 天然栖息地 natural habitat 21. 可归结于 be reducible to 22. 温室气体 greenhouse gases 23. 太阳系 solar system 24. 温室效应 greenhouse effect 25. 银河 the Milky Way 26. 黑洞 black holes
Listening Comprehension Directions: Listen to the passage and answer the following questions by choosing the best answer for each question. ( C ) 1. What is meant by “the information superhighway” in the passage? A. The express highway for delivering letters and parcels. B. The superhighway for sending computers to customers. C. The extension of a worldwide computer network for communication. D. The information sent by those who own efficient computers.
( C ) 2. At present, what are the prerequisites to get access to the information superhighway? A. A basic computer, a television set, and a modem. B. A basic computer, a community, and a modem. C. A basic computer, a modem, and electricity. D. A basic computer, a stock market, and a modem ( D ) 3. According to the passage, what is the function of a virtual community? A. It makes the individuals in a community play chess more easily. C. It connects one office with another unreal one in an unconventional way. B. It helps the individuals in a community run businesses better. D. It enables the individuals with mutual interests to communicate solely by computer.
Many technologists, scientists, writers and even politicians assure us that the dilemmas of the 21 st century will be addressed by what they call “the information superhighway”. By this they mean the extension of a worldwide computer network already in the making — a network which many are looking to with profound hope. Right now, any individual with a basic computer and modem can tap into this new world network, calling up information about almost anything from almost anywhere and communicating with people all over the world. With new electronic advances linking up telephones, televisions, faxes and computers, a worldwide electronic nervous system will connect any place that can generate electricity.
Cities can be rearranged. Many businesses are run and managed by individuals working in their homes connected by computer to “virtual offices”, though the workers are miles and even whole states apart. “Virtual communities” link individuals with mutual interests who communicate solely by computer, whether their focus is chess or the stock market, and any individual with a computer can belong to many virtual communities simultaneously.
Debate Divide the whole class into a few debate groups. Each debate group is composed of eight students. Four of them are on the positive side, while the other four on the negative side. The students each present their arguments for their own sides. The topic of the debate is: When the scientific research in a certain field, such as cloning, is in contradiction with traditional morals, should we encourage the scientific exploration or stop it?
Discussion Discuss in groups what might be the greatest advances in science and technology in the 21 st century and their possible impacts on human society.
Writing Practice Characteristics of a Research Paper 1. Introduction Generally speaking, there are three unique characteristics of a research paper: 1) A research paper is based on extensive research of proven facts and authoritative testimony. The “proven facts” can be gathered through first-hand experiments (as a researcher does in a lab) or field research through observations, interviews, and questionnaires. In addition, it is necessary to research in the library and surf on the Internet to gather information written by authorities. A research paper must combine both facts and the assessment of facts, both authentic, verified factual information and views firmly founded on it. A good research paper is marked by the unity of facts and ideas
2) The tone of a research paper is usually objective, neutral and unemotional. A research paper is a study of some objective facts or problems, and the conclusions should be based on relevant data, not on personal likes and dislikes. Arguments will be convincing if they are well grounded, and acceptable if presented in a cool, objective tone. 3) The style tends to be formal. It is advisable to use the formal written style for a research paper. The formality is achieved through its appropriate diction, moderately complex sentences, and neat appearance and format. The language should be clear, straightforward, and smooth.
2. Sample Refer to the sample research paper “Successful Families: Fighting for Their Kids” on Page 235 to Page 245 of your textbook. 3. Homework Directions: Write a research paper on one of the following topics. Remember to supply a title, conform to the format of a research paper, and meet the three requirements: solid evidence, objective tone and formal style. 1) The effects of the Internet on students’ life 2) The relationship between teachers and students 3) Security in Chinese cities
Picture Talking
Proverbs and Quotations 1. If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. — Pearl Buck, American writer 想要懂得今天，就必须研究昨天。 —— 美国作家 赛珍珠 2. If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one. — Galsworthy, British novelist and dramatist 如果你不考虑未来，那么你就不能拥有未来。 —— 英国小说家、剧作家 高尔斯华绥 3. The best way to suppose what may come is to remember what is past. — Halifax, British statesman 推测将要发生什么，最好的方法是记住已经发生了什么。 —— 英国政治家 哈利法克斯
4. Time is a great judge, even in the fields of morals. — Mencken, American arts critic 时间是伟大的法官，即使在道德领域亦如此。 —— 美国文艺评论家 门肯 5. Time is a versatile performer. It flies, marches on, heals all wounds, runs out and will tell. — Frank, German novelist 时间是个多才多艺的表演者。它能飞，能大步前进，能治愈一切创伤，即使 消逝，也能留下影响。 ——德国小说家 弗兰克 6. Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever. — Smiles, British writer 失去的财富可以靠勤奋换来，失去的知识可以靠学习得来，失去的健康可以 靠节制或药物得来，但是失去的光阴一去不复返。 —— 英国作家 斯迈尔斯
7. Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of very great importance. — Russell, British philosopher 科学使我们了解所能够知道的，然而我们所能够知道的微乎其微，如果我们 忘却了还有很多我们无知的方面，那么就会对许多重要的事情感觉迟钝。 —— 英国哲学家 罗素
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