新 东 方 背 诵 五 十 篇

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To anybody who is interested.

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01 The Language of Music

A painter hangs his or her finished pictures on a wall, and everyone can
see it. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it is
performed. Professional singers and players have great responsibilities,
for the composer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs
as long and as arduous a training to become a performer as a medical
student needs to become a doctor. Most training is concerned with
technique, for musicians have to have the muscular proficiency of an
athlete or a ballet dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as
their vocal chords would be inadequate without controlled muscular
support. String players practice moving the fingers of the left hand up
and down, while drawing the bow to and fro with the right arm-two
entirely different movements.

Singers and instruments have to be able to get every note perfectly in
tune. Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes are
already there, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner's
responsibility to tune the instrument for them. But they have their own
difficulties; the hammers that hit the string have to be coaxed not to
sound like percussion, and each overlapping tone has to sound clear.

This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student
conductors: they have to learn to know every note of the music and how
it should sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sound with
fanatical but selfless authority.

Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and
understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in
the language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in
any century.

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02 Schooling and Education

It is commonly believed in United States that school is where people go
to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children
interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between
schooling and education implied by this remark is important.

Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling.
Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the
shower or in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes
both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole
universe of informal learning. The agents of education can range from a
revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a
child to a distinguished scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain
predictability, education quite often produces surprises. A chance
conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is
known of other religions. People are engaged in education from infancy
on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong
process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one
that should be an integral part of one's entire life.

Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose
general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a
country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take
assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do
homework, take exams, and so on. The slices of reality that are to be
learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the
working of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of
the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that
there not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political
problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are
experimenting with. There are definite conditions surrounding the
formalized process of schooling.

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03 The Definition of "Price"

Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means
by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed
among buyers. The price system of the United States is a complex network
composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the
economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor,
professional, transportation, and public-utility services. The
interrelationships of all these prices make up the "system" of prices.
The price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad,
complicated system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or
less upon everything else.

If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define
"price", many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the
buyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words that
price is the money values of a product or service as agreed upon in a
market transaction. This definition is, of course, valid as far as it
goes. For a complete understanding of a price in any particular
transaction, much more than the amount of money involved must be known.
Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money
amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be
exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and
payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and
discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or
service, delivery terms, return privileges, and other factors. In other
words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the factors
that comprise the total "package" being exchanged for the asked-for
amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price.

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04 Electricity

The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric
lights, radio, televisions, and telephones that it is hard to imagine
what life would be like without them. When there is a power failure,
people grope about in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the
streets because there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food
spoils in silent refrigerators.

Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a little more
than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been experimenting in this
field for million of years. Scientists are discovering more and more
that the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity
that could benefit humanity.

All living cell send out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats,
it sends out pulses of record; they form an electrocardiogram, which a
doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working. The brain,
too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an
electroencephalogram. The electric currents generated by most living
cells are extremely small - often so small that sensitive instruments
are needed to record them. But in some animals, certain muscle cells
have become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not
work as muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cell are linked
together, the effects can be astonishing.

The electric eel is an amazing storage battery. It can seed a jolt of as
much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it
live. ( An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.) As
many as four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel's body are
specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it
can deliver corresponds roughly to length of its body.

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05 The Beginning of Drama

There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece.
The on most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama
evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the
beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world-even the
seasonal changes-as unpredictable, and they sought through various means
to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which
appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated
until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which
explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some
rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted
and provided material for art and drama.

Those who believe that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those
rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and
costumes were almost always used, Furthermore, a suitable site had to be
provided for performances and when the entire community did not
participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area"
and the "auditorium." In addition, there were performers, and, since
considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the
enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing
masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or
supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-success in hunt or
battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun-as an actor might.
Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious
activities.

Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in
storytelling. According to this vies tales (about the hunt, war, or
other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of
impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the
assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related
theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and
gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds.

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06 Television

Television-----the most pervasive and persuasive of modern technologies,
marked by rapid change and growth-is moving into a new era, an era of
extraordinary sophistication and versatility, which promises to reshape
our lives and our world. It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made
possible by the marriage of television and computer technologies.

The word "television", derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin
(visio: sight) roots, can literally be interpreted as sight from a
distance. Very simply put, it works in this way: through a sophisticated
system of electronics, television provides the capability of converting
an image (focused on a special photoconductive plate within a camera)
into electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire or cable.
These impulses, when fed into a receiver (television set), can then be
electronically reconstituted into that same image.

Television is more than just an electronic system, however. It is a
means of expression, as well as a vehicle for communication, and as such
becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings.

The field of television can be divided into two categories determined by
its means of transmission. First, there is broadcast television, which
reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of
television signals. Second, there is nonbroadcast television, which
provides for the needs of individuals or specific interest groups
through controlled transmission techniques.

Traditionally, television has been a medium of the masses. We are most
familiar with broadcast television because it has been with us for about
thirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today. During those
years, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast
networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, who have been the major purveyors of news,
information, and entertainment. These giants of broadcasting have
actually shaped not only television but our perception of it as well. We
have come to look upon the picture tube as a source of entertainment,
placing our role in this dynamic medium as the passive viewer.

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07 Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie, known as the King of Steel, built the steel industry in
the United States, and , in the process, became one of the wealthiest
men in America. His success resulted in part from his ability to sell
the product and in part from his policy of expanding during periods of
economic decline, when most of his competitors were reducing their
investments.

Carnegie believed that individuals should progress through hard work,
but he also felt strongly that the wealthy should use their fortunes for
the benefit of society. He opposed charity, preferring instead to
provide educational opportunities that would allow others to help
themselves. "He who dies rich, dies disgraced," he often said.

Among his more noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear
his name, including the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which has a
library, a museum of fine arts, and a museum of national history. He
also founded a school of technology that is now part of Carnegie-Mellon
University. Other philanthrophic gifts are the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace to promote understanding between nations, the
Carnegie Institute of Washington to fund scientific research, and
Carnegie Hall to provide a center for the arts.

Few Americans have been left untouched by Andrew Carnegie's generosity.
His contributions of more than five million dollars established 2,500
libraries in small communities throughout the country and formed the
nucleus of the public library system that we all enjoy today.

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08 American Revolution

The American Revolution was not a sudden and violent overturning of the
political and social framework, such as later occurred in France and
Russia, when both were already independent nations. Significant changes
were ushered in, but they were not breathtaking. What happened was
accelerated evolution rather than outright revolution. During the
conflict itself people went on working and praying, marrying and
playing. Most of them were not seriously disturbed by the actual
fighting, and many of the more isolated communities scarcely knew that a
war was on.

America's War of Independence heralded the birth of three modern
nations. One was Canada, which received its first large influx of
English-speaking population from the thousands of loyalists who fled
there from the United States. Another was Australia, which became a
penal colony now that America was no longer available for prisoners and
debtors. The third newcomer-the United States-based itself squarely on
republican principles.

Yet even the political overturn was not so revolutionary as one might
suppose. In some states, notably Connecticut and Rhode Island, the war
largely ratified a colonial self-rule already existing. British
officials, everywhere ousted, were replaced by a home-grown governing
class, which promptly sought a local substitute for king and Parliament.

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09 Suburbanization

If by "suburb" is meant an urban margin that grows more rapidly than its
already developed interior, the process of suburbanization began during
the emergence of the industrial city in the second quarter of the
nineteenth century. Before that period the city was a small highly
compact cluster in which people moved about on foot and goods were
conveyed by horse and cart. But the early factories built in the 1840's
were located along waterways and near railheads at the edges of cities,
and housing was needed for the thousands of people drawn by the prospect
of employment. In time, the factories were surrounded by proliferating
mill towns of apartments and row houses that abutted the older, main
cities. As a defense against this encroachment and to enlarge their tax
bases, the cities appropriated their industrial neighbors. In 1854, for
example, the city of Philadelphia annexed most of Philadelphia County.
Similar municipal maneuvers took place in Chicago and in New York.
Indeed, most great cities of the United States achieved such status only
by incorporating the communities along their borders.

With the acceleration of industrial growth came acute urban crowding and
accompanying social stress-conditions that began to approach disastrous
proportions when, in 1888, the first commercially successful electric
traction line was developed. Within a few years the horse-drawn trolleys
were retired and electric streetcar networks crisscrossed and connected
every major urban area, fostering a wave of suburbanization that
transformed the compact industrial city into a dispersed metropolis.
This first phase of mass-scale suburbanization was reinforced by the
simultaneous emergence of the urban Middle Class, whose desires for
homeownership in neighborhoods far from the aging inner city were
satisfied by the developers of single-family housing tracts.

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10 Types of Speech

Standard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used,
and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any
situation regardless of the level of formality. As such, these words and
expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries.
Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that
are understood by almost all speakers of a language and used in informal
speech or writing, but not considered appropriate for more formal
situations. Almost all idiomatic expressions are colloquial language.
Slang, however, refers to words and expressions understood by a large
number of speakers but not accepted as good, formal usage by the
majority. Colloquial expressions and even slang may be found in standard
dictionaries but will be so identified. Both colloquial usage and slang
are more common in speech than in writing.

Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also
passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary
popularity followed by obscurity. In some cases, the majority never
accepts certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their
collective memories. Every generation seems to require its own set of
words to describe familiar objects and events. It has been pointed out
by a number of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary
for the creation of a large body of slang expressions. First, the
introduction and acceptance of new objects and situations in the
society; second, a diverse population with a large number of subgroups;
third, association among the subgroups and the majority population.

Finally, it is worth noting that the terms "standard" "colloquial"
and "slang" exist only as abstract labels for scholars who study
language. Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language will be
aware that they are using colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers
of English will, during appropriate situations, select and use all three
types of expressions.

E.T.

[M21] [M21] 感謝對大學堂的支持!砸...... [M44]

兴高彩烈

系统通知 系统 2005-5-13 上午11:18 否
内容： 你的帖子 新　东　方　背　诵　五　十　篇刚刚被E.T.加入精华,你得到了50个GLG作为奖励.

[M20]

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11 Archaeology

Archaeology is a source of history, not just a bumble auxiliary
discipline. Archaeological data are historical documents in their own
right, not mere illustrations to written texts, Just as much as any
other historian, an archaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute the
process that has created the human world in which we live - and us
ourselves in so far as we are each creatures of our age and social
environment. Archaeological data are all changes in the material world
resulting from human action or, more succinctly, the fossilized results
of human behavior. The sum total of these constitutes what may be called
the archaeological record. This record exhibits certain peculiarities
and deficiencies the consequences of which produce a rather superficial
contrast between archaeological history and the more familiar kind based
upon written records.

Not all human behavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear as
vibrations in the air are certainly human changes in the material world
and may be of great historical significance. Yet they leave no sort of
trace in the archaeological records unless they are captured by a
dictaphone or written down by a clerk. The movement of troops on the
battlefield may "change the course of history," but this is equally
ephemeral from the archaeologist's standpoint. What is perhaps worse,
most organic materials are perishable. Everything made of wood, hide,
wool, linen, grass, hair, and similar materials will decay and vanish in
dust in a few years or centuries, save under very exceptional
conditions. In a relatively brief period the archaeological record is
reduce to mere scraps of stone, bone, glass, metal, and earthenware.
Still modern archaeology, by applying appropriate techniques and
comparative methods, aided by a few lucky finds from peat-bogs, deserts,
and frozen soils, is able to fill up a good deal of the gap.

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12 Museums

From Boston to Los Angeles, from New York City to Chicago to Dallas,
museums are either planning, building, or wrapping up wholesale
expansion programs. These programs already have radically altered
facades and floor plans or are expected to do so in the not-too-distant
future.

In New York City alone, six major institutions have spread up and out
into the air space and neighborhoods around them or are preparing to do
so.

The reasons for this confluence of activity are complex, but one factor
is a consideration everywhere - space. With collections expanding, with
the needs and functions of museums changing, empty space has become a
very precious commodity.

Probably nowhere in the country is this more true than at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has needed additional space for
decades and which received its last significant facelift ten years ago.
Because of the space crunch, the Art Museum has become increasingly
cautious in considering acquisitions and donations of art, in some cases
passing up opportunities to strengthen its collections.

Deaccessing - or selling off - works of art has taken on new importance
because of the museum's space problems. And increasingly, curators have
been forced to juggle gallery space, rotating one masterpiece into
public view while another is sent to storage.

Despite the clear need for additional gallery and storage space,
however," the museum has no plan, no plan to break out of its envelope
in the next fifteen years," according to Philadelphia Museum of Art's
president.