新视野大学英语读写教程2课文原文

.新视野大学英语读写教程2课文原文目录Unit11Passage A Time-Conscious Americans1Passage B Culture Shock2Unit 23Passage A Learning the Olympic Standard for Love3Passage B The Standard for Olympic Excellence5Unit 37Passage A Marriage Across Nations7Passage B Rich Meeting His Future Mother-in-law8Unit 410Passage A A Test of True Love10Passage B Love Under the Nazis11Unit 513Passage A Weeping for My Smoking Daughter13Passage B Stop Spoiling Your Children14Unit 616Passage A As His Name Is, So Is He!16Passage B Judge by Appearances17Unit 719Passage A Lighten Your Load and Save Your Life19Passage B Are You a Workaholic?20Unit 822Passage A Theres a Lot More to Life than a Job22Passage B What Youngsters Expect in Life23Unit 925Passage A Never Be a Quitter in Face of Life25Passage B From Hardship Comes Success26Unit 1028Passage A Reports on Britain Under the Bombs28Passage B Forty-Three Seconds over Hiroshima30;.Unit1Passage A Time-Conscious AmericansAmericans believe no one stands still. If you are not moving ahead, you are falling behind. This attitude results in a nation of people committed to researching, experimenting and exploring. Time is one of the two elements that Americans save carefully, the other being labor. We are slaves to nothing but the clock, it has been said. Time is treated as if it were something almost real. We budget it, save it, waste it, steal it, kill it, cut it, account for it; we also charge for it. It is a precious resource. Many people have a rather acute sense of the shortness of each lifetime. Once the sands have run out of a persons hourglass, they cannot be replaced. We want every minute to count. A foreigners first impression of the US is likely to be that everyone is in a rushoften under pressure. City people always appear to be hurrying to get where they are going, restlessly seeking attention in a store, or elbowing others as they try to complete their shopping. Racing through daytime meals is part of the pace of life in this country. Working time is considered precious. Others in public eating-places are waiting for you to finish so they, too, can be served and get back to work within the time allowed. You also find drivers will be abrupt and people will push past you. You will miss smiles, brief conversations, and small exchanges with strangers. Dont take it personally. This is because people value time highly, and they resent someone else wasting it beyond a certain appropriate point. Many new arrivals in the States will miss the opening exchanges of a business call, for example. They will miss the ritual interaction that goes with a welcoming cup of tea or coffee that may be a convention in their own country. They may miss leisurely business chats in a restaurant or coffee house. Normally, Americans do not assess their visitors in such relaxed surroundings over extended small talk; much less do they take them out for dinner, or around on the golf course while they develop a sense of trust. Since we generally assess and probe professionally rather than socially, we start talking business very quickly. Time is, therefore, always ticking in our inner ear. Consequently, we work hard at the task of saving time. We produce a steady flow of labor-saving devices; we communicate rapidly through faxes, phone calls or emails rather than through personal contacts, which though pleasant, take longerespecially given our traffic-filled streets. We, therefore, save most personal visiting for after-work hours or for social weekend gatherings. To us the impersonality of electronic communication has little or no relation to the significance of the matter at hand. In some countries no major business is conducted without eye contact, requiring face-to-face conversation. In America, too, a final agreement will normally be signed in person. However, people are meeting increasingly on television screens, conducting teleconferences to settle problems not only in this country but alsoby satelliteinternationally. The US is definitely a telephone country. Almost everyone uses the telephone to conduct business, to chat with friends, to make or break social appointments, to say Thank you, to shop and to obtain all kinds of information. Telephones save the feet and endless amounts of time. This is due partly to the fact that the telephone service is superb here, whereas the postal service is less efficient. Some new arrivals will come from cultures where it is considered impolite to work too quickly. Unless a certain amount of time is allowed to elapse, it seems in their eyes as if the task being considered were insignificant, not worthy of proper respect. Assignments are, consequently, given added weight by the passage of time. In the US, however, it is taken as a sign of skillfulness or being competent to solve a problem, or fulfill a job successfully, with speed. Usually, the more important a task is, the more capital, energy, and attention will be poured into it in order to get it moving. Passage B Culture ShockDo you think studying in a different country is something that sounds very exciting? Are you like many young people who leave home to study in another country thinking you will have lots of fun? Certainly, it is a new experience, which brings the opportunity to discover fascinating things and a feeling of freedom. In spite of these advantages, however, there are also some challenges you will encounter. Because your views may clash with the different beliefs, norms, values and traditions that exist in different countries, you may have difficulty adjusting to a new culture and to those parts of the culture not familiar to you. This is called culture shock. At least four essential stages of adjustment occur during culture shock. The first stage is called the honeymoon. In this stage, you are excited about living in a different place, and everything seems to be marvelous. You like everything, and everybody seems to be so nice to you. Also, the amusement of life in a new culture seems to have no ending. Eventually, however, the second stage of culture shock appears. This is the hostility stage. You begin to notice that not everything is as good as you had originally thought it was. You become tired of many things about the new culture. Moreover, people dont treat you like a guest anymore. Everything that seemed to be so wonderful at first is now awful, and everything makes you feel distressed and tired. Usually at this point in your adjustment to a new culture, you devise some defense mechanisms to help you cope and to protect yourself against the effects of culture shock. One type of coping mechanism is called repression. This happens when you pretend that everything is acceptable and that nothing bothers you. Another type of defense mechanism is called regression. This occurs when you start to act as if you are younger than you actually are; you act like a child. You forget everything, and sometimes you become careless and irresponsible. The third kind of defense mechanism is called isolation. You would rather be home alone, and you dont want to communicate with anybody. With isolation, you try to avoid the effects of culture shock, or at least thats what you think. Isolation is one of the worst coping mechanisms you can use because it separates you from those things that could really help you. The last type of defense mechanism is called rejection. With this coping mechanism, you think you dont need anybody. You feel you are coping fine alone, so you dont try to ask for help. The defense mechanisms you utilize in the hostility stage are not helpful. If you only occasionally use one of these coping mechanisms to help yourself survive, that is acceptable. You must be cautious, however. These mechanisms can really hurt you because they prevent you from making necessary adjustments to the new culture. After you deal with your hostile feelings, recognition of the temporary nature of culture shock begins. Then you come to the third stage called recovery. In this stage, you start feeling more positive, and you try to develop comprehension of everything you dont understand. The whole situation starts to become more favorable; you recover from the symptoms of the first two stages, and you adjust yourself to the new norms, values, and even beliefs and traditions of the new country. You begin to see that even though the distinction of the culture is different from your own, it has elements that you can learn to appreciate. The last stage of culture shock is called adjustment. In this stage, you have reached a point where you actually feel good because you have learned enough to understand the new culture. The things that initially made you feel uncomfortable or strange are now things that you understand. This acquisition of understanding alleviates much of the stress. Now you feel comfortable; you have adjusted to the new culture. Culture shock is not something you can avoid when living in a foreign country. It does not seem like a very helpful experience when you are going through its four stages. However, when you have completely adjusted to a new culture you can more fully enjoy it. You learn how to interact with other people, and you learn a considerable amount about life in a culture that is not your own. Furthermore, learning about other cultures and how to adjust to the shock of living in them helps you learn more about yourself. Unit 2Passage A Learning the Olympic Standard for LoveNikolai Petrovich Anikin was not half as intimidating as I had imagined he would be. No, this surely was not the ex-Soviet coach my father had shipped me out to meet. But Nikolai he was, Petrovich and all. He invited me inside and sat down on the couch, patting the blanket next to him to get me to sit next to him. I was so nervous in his presence. You are young, he began in his Russian-style English. If you like to try for Olympic Games, I guess you will be able to do this. Nagano Olympics too soon for you, but for 2002 in Salt Lake City, you could be ready. Yes, why not? he replied to the shocked look on my face. I was a promising amateur skier, but by no means the top skier in the country. Of course, there will be many hard training sessions, and you will cry, but you will improve. To be sure, there were countless training sessions full of pain and more than a few tears, but in the five years that followed I could always count on being encouraged by Nikolais amusing stories and sense of humor. My friends, they go in the movies, they go in the dance, they go out with girls, he would start. But I, he would continue, lowering his voice, I am practice, practice, practice in the stadium. And by the next year, I had cut 1-1/2 minutes off my time in the 15-kilometer race! My friends asked me, Nikolai, how did you do it? And I replied, You go in the movies, you go in the dance, you go out with girls, but I am practice, practice, practice. Here the story usually ended, but on one occasion, which we later learned was his 25th wedding anniversary, he stood proudly in a worn woolen sweater and smiled and whispered, And I tell you, I am 26 years old before I ever kiss a girl! She was the woman I later marry. Romantic and otherwise, Nikolai knew love. His consistent good humor, quiet gratitude, perceptivity, and sincerity set an Olympic standard for love that I continue to reach for, even though my skiing days are over. Still, he never babied me. One February day I had a massive headache and felt quite fatigued. I came upon him in a clearing, and after approximately 15 minutes of striding into the cold breeze over the white powder to catch him, I fussed, Oh, Nikolai, I feel like I am going to die. When you are a hundred years old, everybody dies, he said, indifferent to my pain. But now, he continued firmly. Now must be ski, ski, ski. And, on skis, I did what he said. On other matters, though, I was rebellious. Once, he packed 10 of us into a Finnish bachelors tiny home for a low-budget ski camp. We awoke the first morning to find Nikolai making breakfast and then made quick work with our spoons while sitting on makeshift chairs around a tiny card table. When we were finished, Nikolai stacked the sticky bowls in front of my sole female teammate and me, asserting, Now, girls do dishes! I threw my napkin on the floor and swore at him, Ask the damn boys! This is unfair. He never asked this of me again, nor did he take much notice of my outburst. He saved his passion for skiing. When coaching, he would sing out his instructions keeping rhythm with our stride: Yes, yes, one-two-three, one-two-three. A dear lady friend of my grandfather, after viewing a copy of a video of me training with Nikolai, asked, Does he also teach dance? In training, I worked without rest to correct mistakes that Nikolai pointed out and I asked after each pass if it was better. Yes, its OK. But the faster knee down, the better. But is it fast enough? Id persist. Finally he would frown and say, Billion times you make motionthen be perfect, reminding me in an Ive-told-you-a-billion-times tone, You must be patient. Nikolais patience and my hard work earned me a fourth-place national ranking heading into the pre-Olympic season, but then I missed the cut for the 2002 Olympics. Last summer, I returned to visit Nikolai. He made me tea. and did the dishes! We talked while sitting on his couch. Missing the Olympic Team the previous year had made me pause and reflect on what I had gainednot the least of which was a quiet, indissoluble bond with a short man in a tropical shirt. Nikolai taught me to have the courage, heart, and discipline to persist, even if it takes a billion tries. He taught me to be thankful in advance for a century of life on earth, and to remind myself every day that despite the challenges at hand, Now must be love, love, love. Passage B The Standard for Olympic ExcellenceThe Olympics remains the most pure example of competition for the sake of competition itself. Athletes sacrifice their careers and bodies risking injury, defeat and complete failure to compete for nothing more than honor for their country and themselves. To achieve such honor, one must both perform at his or her events highest level and act as a role model on the worlds biggest stage. And so, while it must be admitted that performance-enhancing drugs are exploited to offer advantage to some Olympic athletes, those who do so never receive the only true reward the Olympics has to offer: honor. And, they never experience the glory of winning through the virtues of hard work and determination. The greatest track and field Olympian of all time, Carl Lewis, exemplified the Olympic spirit. He did so, not simply through his gold medal performancesLewis won nine gold medals in four different events and held world records in the 100-meter dash and the long jumpbut also through his competitive nature and his ability to win and compete in every Olympics from 1984 to 1996; he would have also competed in 1980 if the United States had not refused to take part. With speed, consistency, integrity and above all desire, Lewis defied not only the stopwatch but also the march of time. He demanded nothing less than the best from himself and achieved the best, not with drugs, but with unmatched discipline and commitment to training. Surprisingly, young Carl Lewis was encouraged to pursue music lessons rather than track by his parents. But, he would not hear of it, and stuck a strip of tape on the ground to mark the distance for the world record and began to jump toward it with singular determination. His father commented, Some kids want to be a fireman one day, a movie star the next. Carl set his mind on track and that was it. He said he wanted to be the best, period. His years of practice and quiet self-confidence set the stage for a phenomenal Olympic track and field career. In 1985, however, a cloud appeared on Carl Lewis horizons: Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who began to beat Lewis consistently in the 100-meter dash. Lewis arrived at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul confident, but even observers who knew very little about the race expected Johnson would win. The world watched and waited anxiously to find out who was the fastest man on Earth. All of the cameras focused on Lewis and Johnson as the runners took their marks in the final heat. The crack of the starters pistol sounded and the racers burst from the line. The crowd was used to Lewis trailing for the first half of the racehe just had a different styleand then finishing strong with his long stride to win. So, they held their breath as they watched Johnson build an early lead with his explosive start wondering if Lewis strong finish would be enough to overcome him. As the runners approached the finish line, Lewis was gaining fast, but alas, his personal best time of 9.92 seconds was not enough to beat Johnson who ran a world record time of 9.79 seconds. Johnson was called the fastest human being ever, and Lewis, it appeared, would be competing for second place in future races. Two days later, however, Johnson was stripped of his gold medal and sent packing by the International Olympic Committee when his post-race drug test indicated steroid use. The gold medal was given to Lewis instead, yet many did not see his conquest as a real victory, and he became swept up in the apparent blanket condemnation of the sport. Worse, a former opponent charged Lewis with steroid u