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自考
综合英语二
作文
L1 Twelve things I
wish they teach at school
Q: Why does
the author tell us not to be afraid to ask stupid
questions?
A: The author
thinks that many apparently naive inquiries like
why
grass is green, or why the sun is
round
,
or why
we need
55.000 nuclear weapons in the world are really
deep
questions. He says when you try to
get the answers
,
you
you
don't know, and will gain deep understanding of
the things.
It’s also important to
know, as well as you can, what it is that
asking questions is
the way. He also tells us that to ask “stupid”
questions requires courage on the part
of the asker and
n’t confine your
learning to schoolwork. Discuss ideas in depth
knowledge and patience on the part of
the answerer. And do
with friends. It’s
much brav
er to ask questions even when there's a
prospect of ridicule than to
suppress your questions and
become
deadened to the world around you.
List
two of the things Carl Sagan mentions in his
article “Twelve
things I wish they
teach at
school” and explain
w
hy you think them important.
Of the things Carl Sagan wished he had
learned in high school, I
think that
“Don?t be afraid to ask ?stupid?
questions” and “Everyone makes
mistakes” are more important than
others.
If we are eager to
learn, we are sure to find a lot of things we
don’t understand. Asking question is a
way of learning. Questions
regarded as “stupid” may be intelligent
and profound ones. They
may lead to
important discoveries, and while trying to get
answers we
may gain insights into
matters of importance.
It is also
important to know that our understanding is
limited and
that we can’t avoid making
mistakes. What is important is to
learn from our mistakes. In others
words, we must think hard and try
to
find out why we make mistakes so that we will not
make the same or
similar mistakes
again. This thinking process is an important
aspect of
learning.
L2 ICON
Q: what are the factors shift from hero-worship to
the
celebrity-worship?
A:
The new forms of media-photography, moving
pictures, radio and
television are the
main factors.
The reproduction of
photos in newspapers turned famous people into
celebrities whose dress, appearance,
and personal habits were widely
commented upon. Slowly, the focus of
public attention began to shift
away
from knowing what such
people did to
knowing what they looked like.
The
shift was accelerated by the arrival of moving
pictures.
Between1901 and 1914, 74
percent of the magazine articles about
famous people were about political
leaders, inventors, professionals,
and
businessmen. After1922, however, most articles
were
about movie stars.
With the arrival of television, the
faces of the stars became as
familiar
as those we saw across the breakfast table. We
came to
know more about the lives of
the celebrities than we did about most
of the people we know personally. Less
than
seventy years after the
appearance of the first moving pictures, the
shift from hero-worship to celebrity-
worship
was complete.
What
are the differences between heroes or heroines and
celebrities?
There are three
distinctions between heroes or heroines and
celebrities. The distinctions are
classified on the bases of quality,
origin and social effect.
First, heroes or heroines are men and
women distinguished by
uncommon
courage, achievements, and self-sacrifice for the
benefit of others. They are famous for
their enduring achievements.
Celebrities are people well-known for
their well-knownness, who become
famous
because of much publicity and not of any enduring
achievements.
Second, to become a hero
or heroine, one needs accomplishment; to become
celebrity, one needs luck. Heroes or
heroines are
distinguished by their
accomplishment; celebrities by their image or
trademark. Heroes or heroines create
themselves;
celebrities are created by
the media. Heroes or heroines are big men
and women; celebrities are big names.
Third, heroes or heroines inspire
respect. They are people against
whom
we measure others. Celebrities inspire envy.
Except
for the attention celebrities
get from the media, they are exactly
like common people.
1
L3 Go- Go American Q: what?s the
American?s attitude towards time?
A:
In the United States, many people keenly feel the
shortness of
each life-time. They are
aware that once a day in
their life is
gone, it will never comeback. And Americans
believe no
one stands still. If you are
not moving ahead, you are
falling
behind. So they value time and want every minute
to count.
This attitude towards time
is shown in the fast pace of life in the
country. Whatever they do they always
seem to be in a
rush. You find people
hurrying to get where they are going. They
hurry to eating places for a meal and
finish it as quickly
as possible.
Also Americans do what they can to save
time. They produce a lot of
labor-
saving devices such as clothes-and dish-washers;
they rapidly
communicate through phone
calls, telex and e-mail and cut down on
personal contacts.
Summarize some striking characteristics
of American life. Give some
examples to
illustrate the characteristics
“Time
is money,” say Americans, since you are allowed
only this
much of time in your life,
you’d better make the
best use
of it.” In the United
-Stated, highly efficient and well-
organized people are
admired. These people will list all the things
that
they are going to do, draw up
plans and carry them out one by one. In
this country, an ideal person turns up
at
meeting on time, fulfils an
appointment punctually
按时
and does not
waste other people’s time.
Fast-
food chains, such as McDonald’s, Kentuckey Fried Chicken(K
FC)
and Pizza Hut (PH), can be found
everywhere in
America, and are very
popular among American people, since many
people try to spend less time in
cooking and eating. Americans like
electronic communication, too. They do
their business by using the
telephone,
the E-
mail and the internet, they hold “teleconferences” to
settle problem,
and they obtain various kinds of information on
the
internet. In short, they
want every minute to count
L4 Take over Boson
Q: Can
you image what did Barrett think of when he heard
Snyder?s
whisper “take over boson”?
A: Because of thirst, Barnet
was almost out of mind. He rose several
times and was a constant threat. But
when he
heard Snyder said “Take over
boson”, he had a strange feeling
suddenly. He came to realize he would
and must
take over the task and be
responsible for the rest. As long as he
stopped others from the little water,
they would always have hopes and
wouldn't die soon. So he picked
Snyder’s gun up and decided to hold off
the other from the
water
until night when a ship saved them.
Have you ever found yourself suddenly
in a position of leadership?
Describe
your experience.
L5 Are you giving
your kid too much Q: Why parents overindulge their
children? There are several reasons to
explain why parents overindulge
their
children. One fairly common reason is that
parents overindulge their children out
of a sense of guilt. Parents
who both
hold down full-time jobs may feel guilty about the
amount of
time they spend away from
their children and may attempt to compensate
by
showering them with
material possessions. Other parents overindulge
because they want their children to
have
everything they had while growing
up, along with those things the
parents
yearned for but didn't get. Still others
are afraid to say no to their children'
s endless requests for toys
for fear
that their children will feel unloved or will be
ridiculed if
they don't have the same
playthings their friends have.
2
L6 Culture shock
Q: What
are four stages that people go through when they
experience
situations that are very
different from those to which they are
accustomed?
A: Stage one is a
honeymoon phase, during which the new experience
is perceived to be interesting,
picturesque,
entertaining, and
charming. You may notice several superficial
differences such as music, food, and
clothing, and the fresh appeal of
the
new experience keeps you feeling interested and
positive. When you
stay in a new
environment for a while, you move to stage two-the
crisis
stage-in which the shine wears
off and day-to-day realities sink in. In
relationship, you notice annoying
habits; in a new country, you find
barriers to establishing connections or
to learning the language beyond
a few
polite phrases. If you stick with the experience
and try to deal
with it realistically,
you will probably move to the third
phase: recovery. In recovery, you learn
the systems, procedures,
language or
nonverbal behaviors of the new environment so that
you can
cope with it on the basis of
some mastery, competence, and comfort.
Finally, when you feel that you
function well and almost automatically
in the new culture, you will move to
the fourth phase: adjustment.
Have you
ever experienced culture shock? Did you finally
adjust to
the new environment?
Studying abroad greatly appeals to
young people. It is really a
brand-new
experience which provides us with the
opportunities to
discover new things.
But we have to be mentally prepared for the
problems with which we may be
confronted. Owing to the differences in
social system, belief, values and way
of life, we may suffer culture
shock
and it is hard for us to be adapted to the new
environment.
Usually, we need to go
through four stages to get accustomed to a
new place. The four stages are
honeymoon, crisis, recovery and
adjustment. On arriving in a foreign
country, we may feel excited, and
everything appears wonderful. But when
we enter the second stage, we
feel that
things are not so good as we have expected. We
begin to miss
our homes and tend to
give it up. However, as long as we stick with it,
we can overcome this culture shock, be
adapted to and finally get
benefit from
this new culture.
How do people adjust
themselves to a new environment?
In a
new environment people will go through four stages
when they
experience situations that
are very different from those to which they
are accustomed. Stage one is a
honeymoon phase, during which the new
experience is perceived to be
interesting, picturesque, entertaining,
and charming. You may notice
several
superficial differences, and the fresh appeal of
the new
experience keeps you feeling
interested and positive. Stage two is the
crisis stage, in which the shine wears
off
and day-to-day realities sink in.
the difficulties and
unpleasantness of
reality replace the charming and picturesque
“honeymoon”. Stage three is a recovery
stage. In which they learn the
systems,
procedures, language or nonverbal
behaviors of the new environment so
that you can cope with it on the
basis
of some mastery, competence, and comfort. Stage
four, the
adjustment stage, occurs when
they feel that they function well and
almost automatically in the new
culture. A greater enjoyment of the new
experience is now possible, and they
may regain some of the initial
positive
regard they had in the honeymoon stage.
3
L7 Model Millionaire I
Q: Suppose you are the millionaire.
Explain how you get to know
Hughie
Erskine and what you do in return for the pound be
gave you when
you first met?-
A: I' m Baron Husberg. I have enough
money to buy the whole of
London. One
day, on a whim I asked my artist
friend Alan Trevor to paint me as a
beggar. Alan had almost finished
the
picture when a very charming young
man
walked into his studio. I suppose he must have
been very
sympathetic with me, for when
Alan was away a minute, the young man
quickly put a pound into my hat. I was
startled for a moment, but I was
pleased when I realized that he took me
for a real beggar. Later I
learned from
Alan all about this young man: he was poor, and
could
not marry the girl he loved
b
ecause her father wouldn’t let them
unless he had 10,000 pounds. Touched by
the
young man’s spirit of kindness, I
decided to help him. The next day
I had
a cheque for 10, 000 pounds delivered to him as a
wedding gift.
L8 Model Millionaire II
Q: Retell t
he story “the model millionaire”.
A: Hughie Erskine
was a charming young man who was in love with a
nice girl called Laura Merton. Laura’s
father
made it clear to Hughie
that he would not marry his daughter to him
until Hughie had the thousand pounds.
One day, Hughie went to see his
artist
friend Alan Trevor in his studio. There he found
his friend
painting a beggar, who
was an old man in rags. Hughie felt so
sorry for the poor model that
he gave
him the only pound he had. The old model was
actually a
millionaire. When he heard
all about Hughie and Laura, and their problem,
he had a
cheque for ten
thousand pounds delivered to him the very next
day.
The couple were happily married,
and the
attended their wedding.
The story shows that a genuine
millionaire is not one who has, but
who
gives.
Which is more important to you:
a more comfortable life or a
meaningful
one?
L9 Only three more days
Q: The author got a solution finally.
What was the solution? Was it
risky?
A: He laid out the diaries in two big
steel suitcases. Over them he
placed a
number of his broadcast scripts, each page of
which had been
stamped by the military
and civilian censors as passed for broadcast. On
top he put a few General Staff maps he
had picked up from friends. Then
he
phoned the Gestapo Headquarters to say he had a
couple of suitcases
full of his
dispatches, broadcasts and notes that he wanted to
take out
of the country. As he was
flying off early the next day, there would be
no time for Gestapo officials at the
airfield to go over the contents.
Could
they take a look now, if he brought them over; and
if they
approved, put a Gestapo seal on
the suit-cases so he wouldn't be held up
at the airport?
Yes, it was
risky. He thought life in the Third Reich(raik)had
always been risky. It was worth a try.
How did the author spend his last two
days in Berlin?
4
L10 The
washwoman
Q: Describe the situation
that I saw the old woman for last time.
A: One evening, while Mother was
sitting near the oil lamp mending a
shirt, the door opened and a small puff
of
steam, followed by a gigantic bag,
entered the room. I ran toward
the old
woman and helped her unload her bag.
now, more bent. Her head shook from
side to side as though she were
saying
no. She could not She was even thinner
utter a clear word, but mumbled
something with her sunken mouth and
pale lips.
After the old
woman had recovered somewhat, she told us that she
had
been ill badly. But as soon as she
was able to stand on her feet once
more, she began her washing. She said
because of the wash. The wash would not
let me die. “I don't want to be
a
burden on anyone!”
What do you
think is the most admirable quality of the old
woman in
the text “The washwoman”
The old washwoman had a very
strong sense of duty. Every piece of
laundry she did was clean and neatly
ironed. One harsh winter, she felt
ill
after she collected a great deal of laundry. She
was so sick that a
doctor and some
neighbors thought she was dying, and a priest was
sent
for. However, she recovered, and
as soon as she was able to stand on her
feet once more, she began her washing.
She couldn’t allow herself to
stay in
bed because of the wash. Supported by a strong
sense of duty and
driven by an
indomitable will, she finally finished the wash,
and
returned it to its owners. Her
story tells us that to be respected
person, what work you do is not so
important. What counts is your
attitude. A washwoman and an economist
should both be respected because
they
both do work society needs.
L11 How I
served my apprenticeship
Q: why was
Andre Carnegie so proud of the one dollar and
twenty
cents
—
the first pay he
brought home?
A:
Carnegie was very proud of the one dollar and
twenty cents he
earned for the first
time in his life when he was only twelve. The
money
,
though small in amount, meant a great deal(
First
,
when he got his first pay he felt that he had grown up (He
was no longer a boy who had to depend
on his parents;
he had become a man who
was able to help support the
family
,
a
contributing
member. This was important because at that
time life was hard for the family and
it was difficult for his
parents to
manage alone(
Also he thought the
money was the direct reward of honest manual
labor. It represented a week of very
hard work. This money gave him the
greatest satisfaction of being rewarded
for what lie had done.
What is your
view of poverty?
L12 A friend for
environment
Q: Why did Rachel Carson
write the silent spring? What?s the content
of it?
A: Because she felt
that the wonders of Nature are precious and
permanent, and much of Nature was
forever beyond the destruction of man.
But then she discovered she was wrong
.She learned with sadness that
little
in Nature is trap beyond the
wrote the
book Silent Spring to sound a startling warning to
mankind and
the book showed quite
clearly that man was endangering himself and
everything else on this planet by his
indiscriminate use of chemical
pesticides. As her title suggests, Miss
Carson was saying that there
might come
a springtime that would indeed be silent because
the birds,
as well as other creatures,
and plants would have been destroyed by the
man-made poisons used to kill crop-
threatening insects.
5
Carson and her Silent Spring
Rachel Carson was a scientist devoted
to environment protection. She
learned
with sadness that little in Nature is truly beyond
the
“tampering reach of man”. She
struggled for the harmony between Nature
and man. In 1962, she published Silent
Spring, a masterpiece in
environment
protection. In this book she pointed out clearly
that man
was endangering himself and
everything else on this planet by his
indiscriminate use of chemical
pesticides. As the title suggests, there
might come a springtime that would
indeed be silent. It would be silent
because the birds, as well as other
creatures, and plants would have
been
destroyed by the man-made poisons used to kill
crop-threatening
insects. She
discovered that everything on this planet is
connected to
everything else. Because
the chemical do not break down in the soil,
they tend to be endlessly recycled in
the food chains on which birds and
animals and man himself are completely
dependent. By polluting the
environment
and destroying the animals and plants, man is
destroying
himself. Silent Spring
exploded into the public consciousness and
created the enthusiasm for “environment
protection”.
L13 Who shall
dwell
Q: In the story, how did the
father?s attitude towards the neighbors
change? What brought
about
the change?
A: When the bomb alert
came, the father was clear that he had built
the shelter for his own family, and
that he would not let anybody else
in.
So when his neighbors came and asked to share the
shelter he
rejected them flatly. When a
mother begged him to take her little girl
in, he did not know what to do. At that
moment his wife dashed outside
and
pushed the girl in. Her act set him thinking hard
.Just a moment
before the first bomb
struck he made a big decision. After giving his
elder son a few instructions, he
stepped out and shoved two children
into the shelter. He stood beside his
wife, ready to spend the last
minute
with her. His change seemed sudden, but
was actually quite natural.
He loved
his children, so he was greatly affected by the
mother's plea
and gave the chance of
survival to the two children. Also his love for
his wife led him to follow her example.
What kind of person do you think the
father was in the story “Who
Shall
Dwell?”
The man was a loving
and responsible father and husband. He believed
t
hat a man’s first Christian duty was to protect his
family.
He built a shelter so that they could survive a
nuclear
attack. When a bomb alert came,
the family immediately got into their
shelter. Then the neighbors came and
asked to share his shelter. He
rejected
them at first. He seemed selfish, but deep down he
felt bad.
Later after his wife walked
out and pushed a little girl in, he made a
big decision. He told his eldest son to
take care of all the younger
children
in the shelter. Then he walked out and pushed two
other
children in. he was able to give
the chance of survival to others
because he was by nature a good,
responsible man.
L14 Cipher in the
snow
Q: Describe Cliff Evan?s life
before his sudden death.
How Cliff
Evans Become a Zero? (The text you should base
your
composition on is “Cipher in
the snow.”
A: Cliff Evans lived with his mother,
stepfather and five younger
half-
brothers and half-sisters.
His
stepfather had never legally adopted him, nor did
he show any
affection for him. At home
Cliff didn't talk much and had never told his
family about his problems.
When he first began school, he was
timid but eager to learn. And his
I)Q)
was pretty good .Then in his third year a
teacher wrote in the school record that
he was “uncooperative and
slow”. Since
then he had never got an encouragement
from his teachers. Gradually, the child
had no more confidence left.
He never
smiled or talked much. He had no friends; he never
belonged to
a club, never played on a
team and never held an office. He come to
school by himself and left by himself.
In class, he would sit back in
the last
seat. Finally, he became silent and lonely. He
became nothing/a
zero.
6
L15 Bribery- an inevitable evil?
Q: what are the major forms of bribery?
A: Bribery can be classified into three
broad categories. The first
category
consists of large amount of money paid for
political purposes
or to secure major
contracts. For example, a certain American company
offered big sums of money to support a
U.S. presidential candidate when
it was
under investigation. Also in order to get big
contracts, such
payments are often made
to ruling families or their close advisers.
The second category covers payments
made to obtain quicker official
approval of some project. In such
cases, the money is often paid to
key-
government officials concerned.
The third category involves payments
made in certain countries to
make a
business deal easy to get approved. For instance,
a foreign
company may pay to get
permission to import equipment. A common type of
this category is the
smaller
sums of money paid to customs officials.
Is Bribery an Inevitable Evil?
Bribery in business can be classified
into three broad categories.
The first
category consists of substantial payments made for
political purposes or to secure major
contracts and also large payments
made
to ruling families or their close advisers in
order to secure arms
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