Unit1
1. Virtue is ... self-centered.
By right action, we mean it must help promote personal interest. 2.... (Poverty) was a product of their excessive fecundity...
The poverty of the poor was caused by their having too many children. 3. ...the rich were not responsible for either its creation or its amelioration.
The rich were not to blame for the existence of poverty so they should not be asked to undertake the task of solving the problem.
4. It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God.
It is only the result or effect of the law of the survival of the fittest applied to nature of to human society.
5. It declined in popularity, and references to its acquired a condemnatory tone.
People began to reject Social Darwinism because it seemed to glorify brutal force and oppose treasured values of sympathy, love and friendship. Therefore, when it was mentioned, it was usually the target of criticism.
6. ...the search for a way of getting the poor off our conscience was not at an end; it was only suspended.
The desire to find a way to justify the unconcern for the poor had not been abandoned; it had only been put off.
7. ...only rarely given to overpaying for monkey wrenches, flashlights, coffee makers, and toilet seats.
Government officials, on the whole, are good; it is very rare that some would pay high prices for office equipment to get kickbacks.
8. This is perhaps our most highly influential piece of fiction.
It is a very popular story and has been accepted by many but it is not true. 9. Belief can be the servant of truth---but even more of convenience.
Belief can be useful in the search for truth, but more often than not it is accepted because it is convenient and self-serving.
10. George Gilder... Who tells to much applause that the poor must have the cruel spur of their own suffering to ensure effort...
George Gilder advances the view that only when the poor suffer from great misery will they be stimulated to make great efforts to change the situation, in other words, suffering is necessary to force the poor to work hard.
11. But these marks of wild country called to may father like the legendary siren song.
Though the place was not pleasant or disagreeable, my father was deeply attracted to it precisely because of its unexplored, uncultivated natural state, and the challenge.
12. \afraid the day's going to catch us,\I explained, wondering what great disaster might befall us if it did.
As a little girl, I believed my father's words, and was genuinely afraid of the possible disaster--if we didn't hurry up, the day would catch us and terrible things might happen.
13. ...from time to time he was halfheartedly sought for trial, though few crimes seemed to lead directly to his door.
In this place, though the police wound make some effort without real earnest to investigate Watson and bring him to court, there seemed to be little concrete evidence to prove that he was
responsible for certain illegal activities.
14. The stranglehold Watson had over this section of Florida was not dissimilar to the unscrupulous activities of certain lawmen, other legal crooks, and even governors that our state was to suffer through its history.
The control Watson had over this part of Florida was much similar to the dishonest or illegal activities of the law-enforcing officials and governors which Florida witnessed in the 20th century. 15. There was the little shack, not the most gracious of living quarters, and there was a murderer for our nearest and only neighbor, about thirty miles away.
Before the family built their own house, they lived in a shabby cabin at Gopher Key, close to the merciless Watson.
16. King Richard in his gluttony never sat at a table more sumptuous than ours was three times a day...
We had abundant food on the island, and even the meals enjoyed by King Richard, who was famous for his love of food, couldn’t possibly compare with ours.
17. Despite the unrelenting heat, we were happy to be let off from our hours of school indoors, sessions which our mother kept every day, rain or shine.
Although it was very hot outside in the sun, we were happy to be dismissed from my mother's sessions indoors. we would have to read and write with her every day no matter what the weather was like. Unit3
18. But this image, now repeatedly thrust before us in photographs, posters, and advertisements, is misleading.
The Earth we see in photos, posters, and ads, which appears so beautiful, is not the true reflection of the world we live in, such image lulls us into complacency.
19. The technosphere has become sufficiently large and intense to alter the natural processes that govern the ecosphere.
Human activities have taken place over such large areas and with such intensity that they have already caused disastrous effects on ecology.
20. ...which could establish itself only because it fitted properly into the preexisting system.
the fish could play its role because it became a necessary link with the processes preceding it and the processes following it in the ecological system.
21. Defined so narrowly, it is no surprise that cars have properties that are hostile to their environment.
When cars are produced to serve such narrow purposes, it is not surprising that some of their characteristic qualities are harmful to the environment.
22. Yields rose, but not in proportion to the rate of fertilizer application...
the farmer applied more and more fertilizer, and the production did rise but did not increase at the same rate of the fertilizer.
23...their waste is flushed into the sewer system altered in composition but not in amount at treatment plant...
People eat plants and animals, and their waste is flushed into the sewer system. After being processed, the waste is still waste. the residue will go into rivers, oceans, and will have harmful effect on the aquatic ecosystem.
24. Left to their own devices, ecosystems are conservative...
If the ecosystems are not upset by outside intrusion, they will remain the same with very little change
25.In contrast to the ecosphere, the technosphere is composed of objects and materials that reflect a rapid and relentless process of change and variation.
The characteristics of the objects and materials in the technosphere are rapid change and great variety.
26.But this is done only at the cost of understanding.
if we take side in the war of the two words, we are doing so at the risk of failing to have a clear understanding of the nature and cause of the war, thus, we lose the chance to really solve the grave environmental crisis. Unit 4 Nettles
1. How all my own territory would be altered, ad if a landslide had gone through it and skimmed off all meaning except loss of Mike.
The impact of Mike's leaving on my life was beyond my imagination. I didn't expect that Mike's leaving would have such a tremendous power that it would change the meaning of my existence completely. All my thoughts were about loss of Mike.
2. During that time of life that is supposed to be a reproductive daze, with the woman's mind all swamped by maternal juices, we were still compelled to discuss Simone de Beauvoir and Arthur Koestler and \
At that time, we were young mothers, and we were supposed to lead a terribly busy life full of confusion and bewilderment caused by giving birth to and raising babies. and our minds were supposed to be fully occupied by how to feed the babies and things like that. However, in the midst of all this we still felt the need to discuss some of the important thinkers of our time like Simone de Beauvoir and Arthur Koestler and T. S. Eliot's sophisticated work \3. ...I would be frightened, not of any hostility but of a kind of nonexistence.
I would be frightened, and my fear was not caused by my neighbor's visibly hostile and violent way of life, but by a kind of formless and hidden emptiness and meaninglessness of human existence. What happened around me was totally irrelevant to me, and I felt very isolated and alienated.
4. She did not ask me---was it delicacy or disapproval? ---about my new life.
She did not ask me about my new life, either out of subtle consideration for my feeling about this sensitive subject or out of disapproval for my new life style. 5. It would be a sleazy thing to do, in the house of his friends.
It would be a morally low thing, an indecent thing to commit infidelity in the house of a friend. 6. I knew now that he was a person who had hit rock bottom.
I knew that he was a person who had experienced the worst in life, the hardest experience a person might have to endure.
7. He and wife knew that together and it bound them, as something like that would either break you apart or bind you, for life.
They experienced the worst together and they knew what it was like and understood the meaning of that experience. Such an experience posed the gravest test to people. If they stood the test, their friendship or marriage would be strengthened, and a sacred bondage would be formed between them. But if they failed the test, their relationship would be broken and they would be driven
现代大学英语精读6课后习题答案
