英语经典短文.doc

中小学课外辅导专家英语经典短文一、How to use an English-Chinese dictionary?When you are reading something in English, you may often come across a new word. Whats the best way to know it?You may look it up in an English-Chinese dictionary. It will tell you a lot about the word: the pronunciation, the Chinese meaning and also how to use this word. But how can you know where the word is in thousands of English words? How to find it in the dictionary both quickly and correctly?First, all the English words are arranged in the alphabetical order. In the dictionary you can first see the words beginning with the Ietter A, then B,C,D,EThat means if there are two words “desert”and “pull”,” “desert”will be certainly before“pull”.Then if there,are two words both beginning with the same letter,you may look at the second letter.Then the third, the fourthFor example, “pardon”is before “plough”, “judge”is before “just”,etc.Do you understand how to look up a word in a dictionary?The dictionary will be your good friend,I hope youll use it as often as possible in your English learning.二、Travel by bike If you go to visit London, youll see a lot of buses and cars on the road. Youll also see a lot of bikes because more people travel by bike.There are a lot of reasons for this. First, it is very cheap to buy a bike, and it is quick, too .You often have to wait for a bus for half an hour. When the bus comes, there are so many other buses and cars on the roads that the bus moves very slowly.I traveled to work by bus for about four years. I often arrived at work late and tired. Then one day, about two years ago, a friend of mine said, “ I go to work by bike. Why dont we travel together?”“Because my bike is old.” I answered, “And there are so many buses and cars on the roads. Ill feel frightened “You neednt feel frightened!” said my friend. “If you follow me and we ride slowly, youll be fine.”The next day I brought myself a new bike. Although we went slowly, we arrived ai work quickly. It took 40 minutes to go to work by bus, but only half an hour by bike!Now I dont feel afraid. I love going go work by bike. I take a different road every day. I arrived at work very quickly. Ive got a little more money now, and more important, I feel healthy.Many people think in the same way as I do. Thats why you see a lot of bikes on the road. Next year youll see more, I am sure. Perhaps in the future we will have roads for bikes only. I hope so.三、American food habits Generally speaking, American food is rather bland and inspired. Salads are popular and are served all the year round. Many American people are “calorie” conscious. This is evident in menus offering “low calorie” or “weight watchers” meals. In markets one can find “No Cal” drinks (meaning without calories) such as ginger ale or cola. “Diet” foods without sugar or salt are also available in food stores.Waiters in American restaurants tend to assume that everyone drinks coffee. If a waiter suddenly asks “Now or later?” what he means is “Do you want coffee with your meal now or later?” Many American drinksCoffee with their meal. When dining out in the US we can ask for tea, milk,coke,bear and so on, if we prefer these to coffee, American restaurants cannot serve beer, wine, or liquor unless they are licensed to do so.The main course in American meals is usually meat, fowl, or fish, but rarely is more than one of these served in the same meal (except that seafood can be used as an appetizer).四、The InternetPerhaps you have heard a lot about the Internet, but what is it?The Internet is many different networks around the world. A network is a group of computers put together. These networks joined together are called the Internet.Maybe that doesnt sound interesting. But when weve joined the Internet, there are lots of things we can do. We can have a lot of interests on the World Wide Web (WWW). We can use the Internet instead of a library to find all kinds of information for our homework. We can find information about our favorites sports or film stars and do shopping on the Internet. We can also send messages to other people by e-mail. It is much cheaper and quicker than calling our friends or sending a letter.Thanks to the Internet, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. People can now work at home with a computer in front, getting and sending the information they need. They can buy or sell whatever they want by the Internet. But do you know 98% of the information is in English? So what will English be like tomorrow?五、The Olympic gamesThe Olympic games are held every four years in a different city in the world. Athletes from many countries compete in a variety of sports. These sports are divided into winter and summer games.The Olympic began in Green more than 2700 years ago. The games were originally part of a religious festival in honor of the Greek God. Eventually, the games became the most important festival in all of Greece.The first recorded Olympic competition was held in 776B.C It was held an outdoor stadium which was about 200 meters long and 30 meters wide. The stadium was in a valley, and about forty thousand people watched the games. The first thirteen Olympics had only one race running.Since 776 B.C. the games had been held regularly for about 1200 years. In 397 the Olympics were prohibited by the Roman Emperor.It was not until 1896 when the first Olympics of modern times were held in Athens. From then on the games are held every four years regularly. The Olympics have become the worlds most important athletic events and a symbol of sporting friendship of all the people in the world.六、No life without the sunWhat a beautiful day!The sun is shining and everything looks bright. Stand in the sun. Can you feel the sun? The sun that gives the heat is very far away. It is hard to believe but the sun is about one hundred and fifty million kilometers away. If a plane flew day and night without stopping, it would take nearly 18 years to get to the sun. The sun doesnt seem very big to us, but its really very huge. One million balls as big as our earth could fit inside the sun. The sun looks small because it is so far away.Our earth is cool enough to live on because the hot sun is so far away. If the sun were much nearer, our earth would be too hot to live on. If there were mo sun, the earth would be so cold that nothing could live on it. Arent we lucky to be just about the right distance away from the sun?The earth circles the sun. It takes one year for the earth to go completely around the sun. And at the same time it is going around the sun, the earth itself is spinning around. The earth spins around once every 24hours. In the morning the sun seems to rise in the east. As the day goes on, the sun deems to travel across the sky. In the evening the sun seems to set in the west and then it is night during every 24hours.The sun gives us light. It keeps us warm. It makes things grow. Plants, animals and people need the sun. The sun makes our earth beautiful. We could not live without the sun.七、InsectsWe often think of insects as being harmful. This is not quite true. Many insects are harmful. For example, flies carry disease. Other insects carry disease, too.Farmers are at war with insects most of the time. Hungry insects kill plants in the fields. Farmers spray the fields to get rid of these insects.Does this mean that all insects are harmful? No. Many are of great help to man. Bees make honey. Without bees and other insects, many trees would have no fruit. Silkworms make silk. Some insects eat other insects that kill fruit trees.Have you ever seen a praying mantis? People who do not know about the praying mantis sometimes kill it. They think it is harmful. But this insect is of great help to farmers and gardeners. It eats insects that kill plants.Long ago, many people thought of most insects as enemies. Today, we know the difference between harmful insects and those that help us.八、Special languageCan you see the rabbits tail? When a rabbit sees something dangerous, it runs away. Its tail is white and moves up and down as it runs. Other rabbits see the tail moving, and they run, too. They know that there is something danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal.Many other animals use this kind of language. When a cobra is angry, it raises its hood and makes itself look fierce. This warns other animals. When a bee has found some food, it goes back to its home. It cannot tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does a little dance in the air. This tells the others where the food is.Some animals say things by making sounds. Sometimes we humans speak in the same way. But we have something that no animal has-a large number of words. No animal has the wonderful power of language.People living in different countries make different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world.The words you know are called your vocabulary. You should try to make your vocabulary bigger. Read as many books as you can. When you meet a new word, find it in your dictionary. Your dictionary is your most useful book. 九、A good ideaMike and Tom had studied in the same class. After they had finished middle school, Mike went to college but Tom found work in a factory. The young man likes smoking very much and its bad for his health. Now he coughs day and night and hes too weak to work. So he was sent away. He spent all money on smoking and sometimes he has little food to eat.Once Tom met Mike in the street. Mike finished college and began to work in a post office and was paid much. When Tom knew about it, he asked Mike to lend two hundred dollars to him. Mike found it was difficult to refuse and agreed.A year later Mike was going go marry and needed a lot of money. He told Tom about it. Tom said he would pay off the debt the next month. But three months passed and Tom did not pay off his debt. And one day Mike went to his house again and said, “Havent you found any ideas to pay off your debt?”“Yes, I have.” Answered Tom. “ If you help me, Ill pay off my debt at once.”“whats it?”“Please lend me five hundred dollars again.” Said the man. “I shall pay you back two hundred dollars, and Ill pay Mr. White back two hundred dollars, and Ill spend one hundred dollars on some bread and a newer coat. Itll be able to satisfy(使满意) you, Mr. White and me!”十、We dont talk with each otherCharlie lived in a small town and worked in a factory. He was good at making clothes and worked hard. Many girls liked him but he ma