Unit One
Passage One
What are the most important issues for students today? Is the university campus really such a different place compared to what it was 40 years ago?
For the students in the 1960s, going to college was the most exciting and stimulating experience of their life. They took part in protests and launched strikes against the establishment with their new and passionate commitment to freedom and justice. Going to college also meant their first taste of real freedom. They could discuss the meaning of life, read their first forbidden book and情话段子
e their first indie film.
In contrast, the students today don’t have the passion for college life that they ud to. Today, college is en as a kind of small town from which people are keen to escape. Instead of the heady atmosphere of freedom which students in the 1960s discovered, students today are much more rious. College has become a means to an end , an opport
unity to improve their prospects of being competitive in the employment market, and not an end in itlf.
But in spite of all this, the role of the university is the same as it always has been. It is the place where students have the opportunity to learn to think for themlves.
Psaaage Two
Older generations generally have a negative attitude to today’s students, the product of postmodern times. Today’s students are expected to accomplish anything in an era with extraordinary opportunities and privileges. It would e智能英语
m they do the opposite. They direct their energy on the Internet communicating ideas and frustrations, instead of trying to asrt their identity by revolution. Perhaps when they are not told about what their parents did before, they will be en writing the revolution in technology.
Unit Two
Passage Two
This is Sandy is an extract from Tone, a story about the life of a deaf girl. She thinks her friends are honorable people who beam with pride when they introduce her to someone new. When people find out she is deaf they are mostly shocked for a moment at first but pretend not to be. Sandy says that the hearing aids she saw in a catalog are great fashion关于诚信的成语
accessories, they’re just like a clip you put onto your ear. Sandy likes to show her hearing aid. She doesn’t tie her hair up in a knot but she tucks it behind her ears. Sandy’s friend Carol introduces her to a boy called Colin at a party. They sit together on a couch and Colin realizes that Sandy can understand what he is saying by reading his lips. Someone turns up the volume of the music and they dance together. Soon they are dating. This is when the real drama begins.
Unit Four
Passage One
What exactly is news?惨怎么读
The objective importance and the historical, international significance of an event is not enough. It is the odd, unexpected and human nature that
made news like 9/11 memorable and newsworthy. So is immediacy which refers to the nearness of the event in time.
When it comes to immediacy, tho media like TV, radio and Internet have an enormous advantage over the press. However, no matter what form it may take, all the media more or less covertly, influence the public. That is so called the power of the media.
In the new millennium, maybe the press or TV are not going to disappear overnight, but the power of the media may be eroded or at least devolved to ordinary people.
Passage Two
All over the English-speaking world, newspaper circulation has been confronted with a long-term trend of decline. The decline comes much from the challenge of internet and the negative environmental impact of newspaper industry. The challenge of internet mainly focus on its attraction to readers and minute-by-minute ads monitoring system.
But maybe the newspaper won’t die without struggle. Besides its convenience over laptop, the demand for local news and the exploitation of lifestyle journalism will create new revenue streams. And more interestingly, the ritual of reading the newspaper has become a hard habit to break.
Unit Seven
Passage One
On a cold, windy morning, I was hanging up the laundry in the backyard, while Hogahn was playing a two-foot oak branch that had fallen into his loving posssion. Focud on capturing the sheet which was trying to sail off over the pond to join the sky so that it draped evenly over the line, I distractedly picked up the stick and tosd it down the hill toward the fence that parated the yard from the water. But the stick went further than I expected and fell into the pond. So did Hogahn, who raced to catch the stick. I was penetratingly aware of the dangers of drowning in the icy pond, but I still walked into it to save the dog. After I carried him out of the water and rubbed him with a towel, Hogahn w
ent over and examined my wet clothes on the floor. He was plead that we had shared a dramatic experience together.
Passage Two
Animals ud to be compared to machines programmed to react to stimuli. They were not considered capable of , feeling or thinking and certainly not of understanding abstract concepts. However, new studies have shown that intelligence is not limited to us human beings as well as species with whom we have a common ancestor. Elephants can recognize themlves in a mirror and birds can understand many concepts. Scientists now believe that intelligence evolves to suit the envir最大的淡水鱼
onment in the same way that bodies do. As a result, they suggest that we should reconsider the way we treat animals.
Unit Nine
Passage One
In the old days student life at university was easy. Students didn’t have to work too hard.
They usually managed to keep up with the work by dashing off the week’s essay at the last minute. But today with no shortage of graduates, competition is tough, and students are spending more time preparing for dreaded final exams, or doing low-paid part-time jobs to pay off debts.
