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But he's also tough. Elected to the post in 1996, thanks largely to the US's
displeasure with Boutros-Ghali, Annan has proved to be energetic and willing to press Americans to accept greater international responsibility.
As the host of 159 heads of state at this year's Millennium Summit in New York September 6 to 8, he advocated intervention against war, disease and poverty. 2-11-B A Musician-turned Economist
Alan Greenspan, who has been Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board for over a decade, is regarded as one of the most important men by many people in the world.
Greenspan was born on March 6, 1926. His father was a stockbroker and his
mother worked in retailing. When he was 4 years old, his parents divorced and he was raised by his mother in New York.
Young Alan was a shy boy but he was very good at large numbers. When he was only five, his mother would get him to add two three-digit numbers in his head. He loved baseball and tennis. And, like his mother, he developed a deep
appreciation for music. In the mid-1940s he studied briefly at a music school in New York, and then toured the country for a year with a music band. Then he entered New York University's School of Commerce and graduated with a degree in economics. He got a Master's degree at NYU in 1949, and shifted to Columbia University to work on his PhD. When his money ran low, he withdrew from graduate school and went to work for the National Industrial Conference Board. He eventually earned a PhD from NYU in 1977.
In the mid-1950s Greenspan opened an economic consulting company. In 1987 he began to work in the Federal Government. Today his work as Chief of Federal Reserve Board is much the same as the work he did on Wall Street, trying to
understand how the economy is working and what drives it; offering suggestions for improvement. He is, however, making less money. 2-11-C
Edwin Hubble
Edwin Powell Hubble was a tall, elegant, athletic man. During his lifetime, his research was focused on nebulae, which are misty patches of light in the sky. In 1924, he announced the discovery of a star in a nebula. He calculated that this star was much further away than anyone had thought and that therefore the nebula was not inside our galaxy, but a galaxy of stars just like the Milky Way, only much further away. His discovery enabled the world to realize that the universe was much bigger than had been previously presumed.
Hubble wanted to classify the galaxies according to their content, distance, shape and brightness patterns, and in his observations he made another great discovery: the galaxies were moving away from each other at a rate constant to the distance between them. This is known as Hubble's law. The greater the distance between them, the
faster they move away from each other. This supported the big bang theory of how the universe came into being.
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Hubble died in 1953. To honor his great contribution to space exploration, his name was chosen for the world's most powerful space telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope. 2-12-A
Drawing Inferences
College students are familiar with the initials, WWW, which stand for World Wide Web. But do you know who invented this? According to the magazine Time, Tim Berners-Lee was the creator.
Tim Berners-Lee is extremely intelligent but not good at \such as linking names and faces. In order to keep track of such links, he wrote some software -- \growing to cover the world. It is today's World Wide Web, which could prove as important as the printing press. Yet so far, most of the wealth and fame coming from the Web have gone to people other than him. He has not appeared on the cover of any magazine. He has a small office at M.I.T., where his nonprofit group helps and guards the Web. 2-12-B
The Story of the Walkman
Akio Morita, chairman of Sony, was annoyed because his children constantly played loud music. He told his company engineers to devise some machine to make the music only audible to the user. They did, and the Walkman was born. This totally changed the way we listen to music. Morita personally insisted on using the name \English. But he knew it was easy to pronounce the word in nearly every language. It was also short, catching and summed up the importance of the new device!
Now the personal stereo is used by everyone. There are new designs such as CD Walkmans, recording Walkmans, etc. As size, weight and cost get smaller, quality gets bigger.
Socially, however, the Walkman habit may not be so good. By playing their personal stereos at full volume in small spaces, listeners may disturb others. The repeated loud beat can also be annoying. That is why in London's Underground Railway System there are signs saying, \Furthermore, drivers listening to Walkmans may sometimes cause road accidents to happen. And the rise in hearing problems is often blamed on their misuse. There is no doubt that modern society has a love-hate relationship with the
Walkman. Yet even criticism proves how popular the Walkman has become. Rather like the television or the computer, it is hard to imagine how we ever lived without them. 2-12-C
The Camera Man
Do you own a camera? Undoubtedly you do, and you probably use it often, too. Just slip the camera in your backpack pocket, and you're set to record your activities on film. But before 1888, you would have needed a wagon to carry all the necessary
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equipment just to take one photograph. Early cameras were the size of microwave ovens! But George Eastman changed the way the world took pictures.
Born in upstate New York on July 12, 1854, George Eastman was the youngest of three children. His father died when George was a young boy. He was forced to quit school at 14 and work to support his family. In 1874, he got a job as a junior clerk at a bank for $15 a week.
A friend introduced George to photography when he was 24. George loved taking pictures, but he didn't like the complicated process. He worked for years to invent something to replace the old machine. When he succeeded, he started a company to produce his \ When he introduced his camera in 1888, George coined the advertising slogan, \soon grew to be very large.
George Eastman was also a great philanthropist. He gave much of his fortune to establish hospitals, clinics, universities, museums and performing arts centers. When he died in 1932 at the age of 77, an editorial in The New York Times said he would be remembered for giving generously for the good of mankind. And, of course, for putting a Kodak smile on the faces of people around the world. 2-13-A Passage 1:
Although children have little or no money of their own, they certainly have the capacity to be \everyday things, they might think that they are the only ones who should be helped. But you can let them know that everyone in this world needs some kind of help, and that some people need more help than others.
Encouraging children to be helpful is one of the best ways to help them develop a charitable attitude, and that's an attitude that hopefully will grow all through their lives. Passage 2:
What is self-control? Self-control is listening to your friend talk when you want him to listen to you.
Being quiet in the library takes self-control, especially when a friend comes in and you want to call to him.
What is caring? When you help a turtle cross a path in the park so he will be safe -- that's caring. When you leave flowers to bloom so others can enjoy them too -- that's caring. Passage 3:
Plato thought there are four virtues: 1) wisdom, 2) courage, 3) temperance, or self-control, and 4) justice. The most important of these is wisdom, which is knowledge of what is truly good. People who have wisdom and, as a result, know what is truly good will tend to do what is right. These people will act in their own interest and be in
harmony with themselves. This harmony is the basis of all justice. People who are just, in Plato's view, will tend to have other virtues as well. 2-13-B
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Professor Sabbatucci's Noble Act
A thief who dropped a winning lottery ticket at the scene of his crime has been given a lesson in honesty. His victim, who picked up the ticket, managed to trace him, and handed over the cash.
The robbery happened last Saturday when maths professor Vinicio Sabbatucci, 58, was changing a tire on an Italian motorway. Another motorist, who stopped to \stole a suitcase from his car and drove off.
The professor found the dropped ticket and put it in his pocket before driving to his home in eastern Italy. Next day, he saw the lottery results on TV and, unfolding the ticket, realized it was a winner. He claimed the 60 million lire prize.
Then began a battle with his conscience. Eventually, he decided he could not keep the money despite the fact that he had been robbed.
He advertised in newspapers and on radio, saying: \robbed me. I have 60 million lire for him -- a lottery win. Please meet me. Anonymity guaranteed.\
Professor Sabbatucci received hundreds of calls from people. All of them tried to trick him into giving them the cash. But there was one voice he recognized -- and he arranged to meet the man in a park.
The robber turned out to be a 35-year-old unemployed father of two children. He gave back the suitcase and burst into tears. He could not believe what was happening. \
The professor replied: \ Then he walked off, ignoring the thief's offer of a reward. 2-13-C
Heart Transplant Operation
At a hospital near Tel Aviv, a Jewish doctor conducted a heart transplant operation, using the heart of a Palestinian for a Jew. The patient, whose name is Yigal Cohen, would have died if he had not received the heart of a Palestinian named Mazen Joulani, who was killed on Sunday. His death is being investigated by police. Mr. Joulani's family claim that he was killed by Jewish settlers but Israeli police said he was killed in a feud with other Palestinians.
After the operation, Dr. Yaccov Lavie spoke of the moment he held a Jew's heart in one hand -- and the heart of an Arab Palestinian Muslim in the other. He said, \you are deep in the transplant operation you don't think about it, but a moment later you think that during the operation you held in your right hand the heart of an Arab Palestinian Muslim... and in the left hand the heart of a Jew. You smile to yourself and see that deep inside we are exactly the same and all the conflicts are completely unnecessary.\
The Gulf News says Mr. Cohen's father David told Israel Radio: \act that really, really touched us. We were very surprised to find out the identity of the donor. It is really touching, especially in these days when relations are so tense. This noble family comes and teaches us that it is possible to do things in a different way.\2-14-A Passage 1:
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To start with, rainwater is collected in a large 3,000 gallon tank on the highest point of land on the island. The tank is so large that it measures about 12 feet in diameter. Once the tank is filled with rainwater, fish are added to the tank and are then raised in the rainwater. Passage 2:
What are some of the similarities between the African and the Asian elephants? Well, for one thing, both animals have long noses, called trunks. An elephant
sometimes uses its trunk like a third hand. Both kinds of elephants use their trunks to pick up very small objects and very large, heavy objects. They can even pick up trees with their trunks. For another thing, both the African and the Asian elephants have very large ears, although the African elephant's ears are considerably larger. Passage 3:
Several theories have been proposed about why the dinosaurs disappeared from the face of the earth. In recent years one popular theory proposes that climatic changes caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. This climatic change theory says that millions of years ago the climate of the world gradually became colder. As the earth slowly became colder, fewer plants were able to grow. The cold weather finally resulted in a severe shortage of food for the dinosaurs. As you probably know, most of the dinosaurs were vegetarians, and they depended on plants for their food supply. 2-14-B
Why Is Biodiversity Important?
The importance of biodiversity seems obvious to us. We enjoy the beauty of
biodiversity when we take a walk in the park, take a trip to the zoo or a wild area, read books or watch TV shows about strange creatures in foreign lands. Some people believe that biodiversity is important simply because it is so wonderful. Some think there are philosophical or spiritual reasons for biodiversity. But there are other reasons why it is so important.
The loss of biodiversity will change the balance of life on earth. If an ecosystem is destroyed, many species adapted to that ecosystem may very likely be destroyed as well. If that species is what scientists call \on it.
Biodiversity is also important in its direct benefits to people. Plants give us the air we breathe; animals and plants supply us with the food we eat; and organisms and microorganisms clean the air, regulate floods, recycle waste, and control pests.
Biodiversity also has economic and health benefits. Both industry and agriculture depend on it for raw material and other things. And medicine is even more dependent on biodiversity. In China, more than 5,000 species of plants are used for medicinal purposes. Many species which were thought \And this is a further threat from the loss of biodiversity. 2-14-C
How Many Species Are There?
Isn't it surprising that scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy than how many species there are on Earth? Their estimates of global species diversity vary from 2 to 100 million species. Most people agree on an estimate
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全新版大学英语听说教程第二册听力原文及答案教学文案
