人教版高中英语-选修8-各单元课文原文

1、选修 8 Un it 1 A land of diversity -Readi ngCALIFORNIACalifor nia is the third largest state in the USA but has the largest populati on .It also has the distinction of being the most multicultural state in the USA, having attracted people from all over the world. The customs and Ianguages of the immig

2、rants live on in their new home. This diversity of culture is not surprising when you know the history of California.NATIVE AMERCANSExactly when the first people arrived in what we now know as California, no one really kno ws. However, it is likely that Native America ns were livi ng in California a

3、t least fifteen thousand years ago. Scientists believe that these settlers crossed the Bering Strait in the Arctic to America by means of a land bridge which existed in prehistoric times. In the 16th century, after the arrival of the Europeans,the native people suffered greatly. Thousa nds were kill

4、ed or forced into slavery .In additi on, many died from the diseasesbrought by the Europea ns. However, some survived these terrible times, and today there are more Native America ns livi ng in California than in any other state.THE SPANISHIn the 18th century California was ruled by Spain. Spanish s

5、oldiers first arrived in South America in the early 16th cen tury, whe n they fought aga inst the n ative people and took their land. Two centuries later, the Spanish had settled in most parts of South America and along the northwest coast of what we now call the United States. Of the first Spanish

6、to go to California, the majority were religious men, whose ministry was to teach the Catholic religion to the natives. In 1821, the people of Mexico gained their independence from Spain. California then became part of Mexico. In 1846 the Un ited States declared war on Mexico, and after the war won

7、by the USA, Mexico had to give California to the USA. However, there is still a stro ng Spanish in flue nce in the state. That is why today over 40 of California ns speak Spanish as a first or sec ond Ian guage.RUSSIANSIn the early 1800s, Russian hunters, who had originally gone to Alaska, began set

8、tling in California. Today there are about 25,000 Russian-America ns livi ng in and around San Fran cisco.GOLD MINERSIn 1848, not long after the American-Mexica n war, gold was discovered in Califor nia. The dream of becoming rich quickly attracted people from all over the world. The n earest, and t

9、herefore the first to arrive, were South America ns and people from the Un ited States. The n adve nturers from Europe and Asia soon followed. In fact, few achieved their dream of becoming rich. Some died or returned home, but most remained in California to make a life for themselves despite great h

10、ardship. They settled in the new tow ns or on farms. By the time California elected to become the thirty-first federal state of the USA in 1850, it was already a multicultural society.LATER A RRIVALSAlthough Chinese immigrants began to arrive during the Gold Rush Period, it was the build ing ofthe r

11、ail network from the west to the east coast that brought even larger numbers to California in the 1860s. Today, Chinese-Americans live in all parts of California, although a large perce ntage have chose n to stay in the "Ch in atow ns" of Los An geles and San Fran cisco.Other immigra nts s

12、uch as Italia ns, main ly fisherme n but also wine makers, arrived in California in the late 19th century. In 1911 immigrants from Denmark established a town of their own, which today still keeps up their Danish culture. By the 1920s the film industry was well established in Hollywood, California. T

13、he industry boom attracted Europea ns in cludi ng many Jewish people. Today California has the sec ond largest Jewish populatio n in the Un ited States.Japa nesefarmers bega n arriv ing in Califor nia at the beg inning of the 20th cen tury, and since the 1980s a lot more have settled there. People f

14、rom Africa have been living in California since the 1800s, when they moved north from Mexico. However, even more arrived between 1942 and 1945 to work in the ship and aircraft industries. MOST RECENT ARRIVALSIn more recent decades, California has become home to more people from Asia, in clud ing Kor

15、ea ns, Cambodia ns, Viet namese and Laotia ns. Since its begi nning in the 1970s, the computer industry has attracted Indians and Pakistanis to California.THE FUTUREPeople from different parts of the world, attracted by the climate and the lifestyle, still immigrate to California. It is believed tha

16、t before long the mix of nationalities will be so great that there will be no distinet major racial or cultural groups, but simply a mixture of many races and cultures.GEORGES DIARY 12TH 14TH JUNEMonday 12th, JuneArrived early this morning by bus. Went straight to hotel to drop my luggage, shower an

17、d shave. Then went explori ng. First thi ng was a ride on a cable car. From top of the hill got a spectacular view of San Fran cisco Bay and the city. Built in 1873, the cable car system was inven ted by An drew Hallidie, who wan ted to find a better form of tran sport tha n horsedraw n trams. Appar

18、e ntly he'd bee n shocked whe n he saw a terrible accide nt in which a tram's brakes failed, the con ductor could not con trol the situation and the tram slipped down the hill dragging the horses with it.Had a late lunch at Fisherman's What. This is the district where Italian fishermen f

19、irst came to San Francisco in the late 19th century and began the fishing industry. Now it's a tourist area with lots of shops, sea food restaurants and bakeries. It's also the place to catch the ferry to Angel Island and other places in the Bay.Did so much exploring at Fisherman's What.

20、 Am exhausted and don't feel like doing anything else. Early bed tonight!Tuesday 13th, JuneTeamed up with a couple from my hotel (Peter and Terri) and hired a car. Spent all day driving around the city. There's a fascinating drive marked out for tourists. It has blue and white signs with sea

21、gulls on them to show the way to go. It's a 79km round-trip that takes in all the famous tourist spots. Stopped many times to admire the view of the city from different angles and take photographs. Now have a really good idea of what the city's like.In evening, went to Chinatown with Peter a

22、nd Terri. Chinese immigrants settled in this area in the 1850s. The fronts of the buildings are decorated to look like old buildings in southern China. Saw some interesting temples here, a number of markets and a great many restaurants. Also art galleries and a museum containing documents, photograp

23、hs and all sorts of objects about the history of Chinese immigration, but it is closed in the evening. Will go back during the day. Had a delicious meal and then walked down the hill to our hotel.Wednesday 14th, JuneIn morning, took ferry to Angel Island from the port in San Francisco Bay. On the wa

24、y had a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge. From 1882 to 1940 Angel Island was a famous immigration station where many Chinese people applied for right to live in USA. The cells in the station were very small, cold and damp; some did not even have light but the immigrants had nowhere else to go. Th

25、eir miserable stay seemed to be punishment rather than justice and freedom to them. They wrote poems on the walls about their loneliness and mourned their former life in China. In 1940 the civil authorities reformed the system so that many more Chinese people were able to grasp the opportunity of se

26、ttling in the USA. Made me very thoughtful and thankful for my life today.选修 8 Unit 2 Cloning -ReadingCLONING: WHERE IS IT LEADING US?Cloning has always bee n with us and is here to stay. It is a way of making an exact copy of ano ther ani mal or pla nt. It happe ns in pla nts whe n garde ners take

27、cuttings from growing plants to make new ones. It also happens in animals when twins identical in sex and appearance are produced from the same original egg. The fact is that these are both examples of n atural cion es.Cloning has two major uses. Firstly, gardeners use it all the time to produce com

28、mercial quantities of plants. Secondly, it is valuable for researchon new plant species and for medical research on animals. Cloning plants is straightforward while cloning animals is very complicated. It is a difficult task to undertake. Many attempts to clone mammals failed. But at last the determ

29、 in ati on and patie nce of the scie ntists paid off in 1996 with a breakthrough - the clo ning of Dolly the sheep. The procedure works like this:On the one hand, the whole scientific world followed the progress of the first successful clone, Dolly the sheep. The fact that she seemed to develop norm

30、ally was very encouraging. Then came the disturbing news that Dolly had become seriously ill. Cloning scientists were cast down to find that Dolly's illnesses were more appropriate to a much older animal. Altogether Dolly lived six and a half years, half the length of the life of the original sh

31、eep. Sadly the same arbitrary fate affected other species, such as cloned mice. The questi ons that concerned all scie ntists were: "Would this be a major difficulty for all cloned animals? Would it happenforever? Could it be solved if corrections were made in their research procedure?"On

32、the other hand, Dolly's appearance raised a storm of objections and had a great impact on the media and public imag in ati on. It became con troversial. It sudde nly ope ned everybody's eyes to the possibility of using cloning to cure serious ill nesses and eve n to produce huma n bein gs.Al

33、though at present human egg cells and embryos needed for cloning research are difficult to obtain, newspapers wrote of evil leaders hoping to clone themselves to attain their ambitions. Religious leaders also raised moral questions. Gover nments became n ervous and more con servative. Some bega n to

34、 reform their legal systems and forbade research into huma n cloning, but other coun tries like Chi na and the UK, continued to accumulate evidence of the abundant medical aid that cloning could provide. However, scientists still wonder whether cloning will help or harm us and where it is lead ing u

35、s.THE RETURN OF THE DINOSAURS?The possibility of cloning fierce and extinct wild animals has always excited film makers. And they are not the only ones! The popularity of films such as Jurassic Park, in which a scie ntist clones several kinds of ext inct dino saurs, proves how the idea struck a mixt

36、ure of fear and excitement into people's hearts. But in fact we are a long way from being able to clone extinct animals. Scientists are still experimenting with cloning mammals. This is because the cloning of mammals is still a new scie nee and its story only bega n seriously in the 1950s as thi

37、s list shows:1950scloningoffrogs1996 first clone of a mammal: Dolly the sheep1970s research using the embryos of mice2000 cow gave birth toa bis on1979 work on embryos of sheep and mice2001 China's firstcloned twin calves1981 first experime ntal clones of mice2002 first clonedcats1983 first expe

38、rime ntal clones of cows2005 first cloneddogFrom time to time people suggest that extinet animals like dinosaurs, can possibly be brought back to life through cloning. Unfortun ately, with what we know now, this is either impossible or unsuitable. There are many reasons. The in itial requireme nt is

39、 that you n eed perfect DNA (which gives in formatio n for how cellsare to grow). All efforts of clo ning an ani mal will be in vain if there is not eno ugh diversity in the group to overcome ill nesses. Diversity in a group meanshav ing ani mals with their genes arran ged in differe nt ways. The ad

40、va ntage is that if there is a new illness some of these animals may die,but others will survive and pass on the ability to resist that disease to the next gen erati on. The great drawback to cloning a group ofani mals is that they would all have the same arran geme nt of genes and so might die of t

41、he same illness. Then none of them would be left tocon ti nue the species. It would be unfair to clone any extinet animals if they were to live in a zoo. A suitable habitat would be n eeded for them to lead a n atural life.Based on what we know now, you cannot clone ani mals that have bee n exti net

42、 Ion ger tha n 10,000 years. Actually, dino saurs disappeared65,000,000 years ago. So the cha nee of dino saurs ever retur ning to the earth is merely a dream.选修 8 Un it 3 Inven tors and inven tio ns -Read ingTHE PROBLEM OF THE SHRIKESWhe n I called up my mother in the coun tryside on the teleph one

43、 she was very upset. "There are some sn akes in our courtyard," she told me. "Sn akes come n ear the house now and the n, and they seem to have made their home here, not far from the walnut tree. Can you get rid of them please?" I felt very proud. Here was a cha nee for .me to di

44、stinguish myself by inventing something merciful that would catch snakes but not harm them. I knew my parents would not like me to hurt these living creatures!The first thing I did was to see if there were any products that might help me, but there only seemed to be powders desig ned to kill sn akes

45、. A new approach was clearly needed. I set about researching the habits of snakes to find the easiest way to trap them. Luckily these reptiles are small and that made the solution easier.Prepared with some research findings, I decided on three possible approaches: firstly, rem oving their habitat; s

46、ec on dly, attract ing them into a trap using male or female perfume or food; and thirdly cooling them so that they would become sleepy and could be easily caught. I decided to use the last on e. I bought an maker which was made of sta in less steel. Betwee n the outside and the in side walls of the

47、 bowl there is some jelly, which freezes when cooled. I put the bowl into the fridge and waited for 24 hours. At the same time I prepared some iceubes.The n ext morning I got up early before the sun was hot. I placed the froze n bowl over the snakes' habitat and the ice-cubes on top of the bowl

48、to keep it cool. Finally I covered the whole thing with a large bucket. Then I waited. After two hours I removed the bucket and the bowl. The snakes were less active but they were still too fast for me. They abruptly disappeared into a convenient hole in the wall. So I had to adjust my pla n.For the

49、 sec ond attempt I froze the bowl and the ice-cubes aga in but placed them over the sn akes' habitat in the eve ning, as the temperature was start ing to cool. Then as before, I covered the bowl with the bucket and left everything overnight. Early the next morning I returned to see the result. T

50、his time with great caution I bent dow n to exam ine the sn akes and I found them very sleepy. But once picked up, they tried to bite me. As they were pois onous sn akes, I clearly n eeded to improve my desig n aga in.My third attempt repeated the second procedure. The next morning I carried in my h

51、and a small net used for catching fish. This was in the expectation that the snakes would bite aga in. But mon itored carefully, the sn akes proved to be no trouble and all went accord ing to pla n. I collected the passive sn akes and the n ext day we merrily released them all back into the wild.Pre

52、ssed by my friends and relations, I decided to seize the opportunity to get recog niti on for my successful idea by sending my inven ti on to the pate nt office. Only after you havehad thatrecog niti on can you say that you are truly an inven tor. The criteria are so strict that it is difficult to g

53、et new ideas accepted uni ess they are truly no vel. In additi on, no inven tio n will get a pate nt if it is: a discovery a scie ntific idea or mathematical model literature or art a game or a bus in ess a computer programme a new an imal or pla nt varietyNor will you receive a pate nt un til a sea

54、rch has bee n made to find out that your product reallyis differe nt from every one else's. There are a large nu mber of pate nt exam in ers, too, whose on ly job is to exam ine whether your claim is valid or no t. If it passes all the tests, your applicati on for a pate nt will be published 18

55、mon ths from the date you apply. So I have filled in the form and filed my pate nt applicati on with the Pate nt Office. Now it's a matter of waiting and hoping. You'll know if I succeed by the size of my bank bala nee! Wish me luck!ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELLAlexa nder Graham Bell was born in 184

56、7 in Scotla nd, but whe n he was young his family moved to Bost on, USA. His mother was almost en tirely deaf, so Alexa nder became in terested in helpi ng deaf people com muni cate and in deaf educatio n. This in terest led him to invent the microph one. He found that by press ing his lips against

57、his mother's forehead, he could make his mother understand what he was say ing.He believed that one should always be curious and his most famous say ing was:"Leave the beate n track occasi on ally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certa in to find someth ing that you ha

58、ve n ever see n before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the result of thought."It was this exploring around problems and his dynamic spirit that led to his most famous i

59、nven ti on - the teleph one in 1876. Bell n ever set out to invent the telepho ne and what he was trying to desig n was a multiple telegraph. This orig inal telegraph sent a message over distances using Morse code (a series of dots tapped out along a wire in a particular order). But only one message could go at a time. Bell wanted to improve it so that it could send several messagesat the same time. He designed a machine that would separate different sound waves and allow different conversations to be held at the same time. But he found the problem di