阅读理解When he died in 1905, Taylor

阅读理解The first navigational lights in the New World were probably lanterns hung at harbor entrances. The first lighthouse was put up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by "light dues" levied (征收) on ships, the original beacon was blown up in 1776. Until then there were only a dozen or so true lighthouse in the colonies. Little over a century later, there were 700 lighthouses. The first eight lanterns erected on the West Coast in the 1850''s featured the same basic New England design: a Cape Cod dwelling with the tower rising from the center or standing close by. In New England and elsewhere, though, lighthouses reflected a variety of architectural styles. Since most stations in the Northeast were set up on rocky eminences (高处), enormous towers were not the rule. Some of them were made of stone and brick, others of wood or metal. Some of them stood on pilings or stilts; others were fastened to rock with iron rods. Farther south, from Maryland through the Florida Keys, the coast was low and sandy. It was often necessary to build tall towers there― massive structure like the majestic Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, lighthouse, which was lit in 1870. At 190 feet, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. Notwithstanding differences in appearanced construction, most lighthouses in America shared several features: a light, living quarters, and sometimes a bell (or, later a foghorn). They also had quarters, and something else in common: a keeper and, usually, the keeper''s family. The keeper''s essential task was trimming the lantern wick (灯芯) in order to maintain a steady, bright flame. The earliest keepers came from every industry― they were seaman, farmers, mechanics, rough mill hands ― and appointments were often handed out by local customs commissioners as political plums. After the administration of lighthouse was taken over in 1852 by the United States Lighthouse Board, and agency of the Treasury Department, the keeper corps gradually became highly professional.

阅读理解It was not "the comet of the century" experts predicted it might be. However, Kohoutek has provided a bonanza of scientific information. It was first spotted 370 million miles from Earth, by an astronomer who was searching the sky for asteroids, and after whom the comet was named. Scientists who tracked Kohoutek the ten months before it passed the Earth predicted the comet would be a brilliant spectacle. But Kohoutek fell short of these predictions, disappointing millions of amateur sky watchers, when it proved too pale to be seen with the unaided eye. Researchers were very happy nonetheless With the new information they were able to glean from their investigation of the comet. Perhaps the most significant discovery was the identification of two important chemical compounds ― methyl cyanide and hydrogen cyanide ― never before seen in comets, but found it the far reaches of interstellar space. This discovery revealed new clues about the origin of comets. Most astronomers agree that comets are primordial remnants from the formation of the solar system, but whether they were born between Jupiter and Neptune or much farther out toward interstellar space has been the subject of :much debate. If compounds no more complex than ammonia and methane, key components of Jupiter, were seen in comets, it would suggest that comets form within the planetary orbits. But more complex compounds, such as the methyl cyanide found in Kohoutek, point to formation far beyond the planets; there the deep freeze of space has kept them unchanged.

阅读理解With the development of science and technology, we know much of glaciers. For all their great diversity of shapes and sizes, glaciers consist of two essential types: valley glaciers, which flow downhill from mountains and are shaped by the constraints of topography, and ice sheets, which flow outward in all directions from domelike centers of accumulated ice to cover vast expanses of terrain. Whatever their types, most glaciers are remnants of great shrouds of ice that covered the earth eons ago. In a few of these glaciers the oldest ice is very ancient indeed: the age of parts of tile Antarctic sheet may be over 500,000 years. Glaciers are born in rocky wombs above the snow line, where there is sufficient winter snowfall and summer cold for snow to survive the annual melting. The long gestation period of a glacier begins with the accumulation and gradual transformation of snowflakes. Soon after they come to the ground, complex snowflakes are reduced to compact, roughly spherical ice crystals, the basic components of a glacier. As new layer of snow and fern, snow that survives the melting of the previous summer, accumulate, they squeeze out most of the air bubbles trapped within and between the crystals below. This process of recrystallization continues throughout the life of the glacier. The length of time required for the formation of glacier ice depends mainly upon the temperature and the rate of snowfall. In Iceland, where snowfall is heavy and summer temperature is high enough to produce plenty of melt water, glacier ice may come into being in a relatively short time ― for example, ten years. In parts of Antarctica, where snowfall is scant and the ice remains well below its melting temperature year-round, the process may require hundreds of years. The ice does not become a glacier until it moves under its own weight, and it can not move significantly until it reaches a critical thickness ― the point at which the weight of the piled-up layers overcomes the internal strength of the ice and the friction between the ice and the ground. This critical thickness is about 60 feet. The fastest moving glaciers have been gauged at not much more than two and a half-mile per year, and some cover less than 1/100 inch in that same amount of time. But no matter how infinitely small the flow, movement is what distinguishes a glacier from a mere mass of ice.

阅读理解Many sentences used to describe monetary policy, such as "steering the economy to a soft landing" or "a touch on the brakes", makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the troth. The relation between interest rates and inflation is uncertain. And there are long, variable lags before policy changes have any effect on the economy. Hence the analogy that likens the conduct of monetary policy to driving a car with a blackened windscreen, a cracked rearview mirror and a faulty steering wheel. Given all these disadvantages, central bankers seem to have had much to boast about. Average inflation in the big seven industrial economies fell to a mere 2.3 % last year, close to its lowest level in 30 years, before rising slightly to 2.5 % this July. This is a long way below the double-digit rates which many countries experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s. It is also less than most forecasters had predicted. In late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that America''s inflation rate would average 3.5% in 1995. In fact, it fell to 2.6% in August, and is expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole. In Britain and Japan inflation is running half a percentage point below the rate predicted at the end of last year. This is no flash in the pan; over the past few years, inflation has been continually lower than expected in Britain and America. Economists have been particularly surprised by favourable inflation figures in Britain and the United States, since conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially that of America, have little productive slack. America''s capacity utilization, for example, hit historically high levels earlier this year, and its jobless rate (5.6% in August) has fallen below most estimates of the natural rate of unemployment― the rate below which inflation has taken off in the past. Why has inflation proved so mild? The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately, a little defective. Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have up-ended the old economic models which were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation.

阅读理解Parents now have a popular belief that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, greatly different ideas about how to teach it or how much priority (优先)it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is that how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling. If spelling becomes the only focal point of his teacher''s interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to "play safe". He will prone to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That''s why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability. I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: "This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible(难以辨认的). "It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil''s technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which included some beautiful expressions of the child''s deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centred on the child''s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation (动力) to seek improvement.

阅读理解On the past few days, two nations with large numbers of AIDS-infected people have announced plans to distribute a triple cocktail of life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs free to all who need it. China has been treating 5 ,000 patients and plans to expand the program to cover everyone in the country. South Africa''s cabinet approved a plan that includes drugs for all who need them. China spent years denying it had an AIDS problem. Until recently, South Africa''s top officials minimized the epidemic, questioned whether H.I. V. was the cause of AIDS and labeled antiretroviral drugs "poisons". Both countries have now taken a courageous and essential step. But only one is likely to succeed. Indeed, China''s program is already failing. One in five Chinese who have received antiretroviral drugs has already stopped taking them, which can lead to the creation of drug-resistant strains of the virus. China has only about 100 doctors nationwide with experience in treating AIDS. Health workers are simply handing patient''s bottles of pills. Most patients receive no counseling on how to take them or deal with their side effects, and little follow-up monitoring. China is also still determined to crack down on high-risk groups such as prostitutes and drug users, which drives the epidemic underground. Even recently, provincial police were beating AIDS patients protesting for treatment. Treating AIDS requires a network of health care workers and a political climate that does not stigmatize and discriminate against those who come forward. South Africa''s government, by contrast, understands that handing out pills is only part of the solution. The program, which will cost about $ 680 million a year by 2007, will spend only a third of its budget on buying drugs. Much of the money will go instead to establishing clinics and training thousands of doctors, nurses, counselors and other workers to staff them. The government plans to have a well-run clinic in every district by the end of the year, and in every municipality by the end of 2008. South Africa has an influential national network of campaigners for AIDS treatment whose pressure and advice were crucial to devising the plan, and who will be crucial to its success. It also had help from the foundation led by former President Bill Clinton, which negotiated better prices for AIDS medicine. China''s government, by contrast, made its decisions in secret and has yet to permit such widespread citizen activism on AIDS. But China has one huge advantage over South Africa; while one in nine South Africans has the AIDS virus, China''s epidemic is far smaller. Now that China has decided to treat AIDS, it has a chance to learn from other nations before the deluge.

阅读理解It''s hardly news that the immigration system is a mess. Foreign nationals have long been slipping across the border with fake papers, and visitors who arrive in the U. S. legitimately often overstay their legal welcome without being punished. But since Sept 11, it''s become clear that terrorists have been shrewdly factoring the weaknesses of our system into their plans. In addition to their mastery of forging passports, at least three of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers (劫机者) were here on expired visas. That''s been a safe bet until now. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) (移民归化局) lacks the resources, and apparently the inclination, to keep track of the estimated 4 million foreigners who have intentionally overstayed their welcome. But this laxness (马虎) toward immigration fraud may be about to change. Congress has already taken some modest steps. The U. S. A. Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy , requires the FBI, the Justice Department, the State Department and the INS to share more data, which will make it easier to stop watch-listed terrorists at the border. But what have really needed, critics say, is even tougher laws and more resources aimed at tightening up border security. Reformers are calling for a rollback of rules that hinder law enforcement. They also want the INS to hire hundreds more border patrol agents and investigators to keep illegal immigrants out and to track them down once they''re here. Reformers also want to see the INS set up a database to monitor whether visa holders actually leave the country when they are required to. All these proposed changes were part of a new border-security bill that passed the House of Representatives but died in the Senate last week. Before Sept. 11, legislation of this kind had been blocked by two powerful lobbies; universities, which rely on tuition from foreign students who could be kept out by the new law, and business, which relies on foreigners for cheap labor. Since the attacks, they''ve backed off. The bill would have passed this time but for congressional maneuverings and is expected to be reintroduced and to pass next year. Also on the agenda for next year; a proposal, backed by some influential law-makers, to split the INS into two agencies—a good cop that would tend to service functions like processing citizenship papers and a bad cop that would concentrate on border inspections, deportation and other functions. One reason for the division, supporters say, is that the INS has in recent years become too focused on serving tourists and immigrants. After the Sept. 11 tragedy, the INS should pay more attention to serving the millions of ordinary Americans who rely on the nation''s border security to protect them from terrorist attacks.

阅读理解Education is one of the key words of our time. A man without an education, most of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of adverse circumstances, deprived of one of the greatest twentieth-century opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states " invest " in institutions of learning to get back "interest" in the form of a large group of enlightened young men and women who are potential leaders. Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, punctuated by textbooks ― that purchasable wells of wisdom ― what would civilization be like without its benefits? So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and births ― but our spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on "facts and figures" and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and the capacity of a man is to get along with his fellow-citizens. If our educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we would have the most democratic form of "college" imaginable. Among tribal people all knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all; it is taught to every member of the tribe so that in this respect everybody is equipped for life. It is the ideal condition of the "equal start" which only our most progressive forms of modern education try to regain. In primitive cultures the obligation to seek and to receive the traditional instruction is binding to all. There are no "illiterates" ― if the term can be applied to peoples without a script ― while our own compulsory school attendance became law in Germany in 1642, in France in 1806, and in England in 1876, and is still non-existent in a number of "civilized" nations. This shows how long it was before we deemed it necessary to make sure that all our children could share in the knowledge accumulated by the "happy few" during the past centuries. Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means. All are entitled to an equal start. There is none of the hurry, which, in our society, often hampers the full development of a growing personality. There, a child grows up under the ever-present attention of his parents'' and therefore the jungles and the savannahs know of no "juvenile delinquency". No necessity of making a living away from home results in neglect of children, and no father is confronted with his inability to "buy" an education for his child.

阅读理解Hotlines have become common in China

阅读理解It can be inferred that

阅读理解In the late years of the nineteenth century, "capital" and "labour" were enlarging and perfecting their rival organizations on modem lines. Many old firms was replaced by a limited liability company with a bureaucracy of salaried managers. The change met the technical requirements of the new age by engaging a large professional element and prevented the decline in efficiency that so commonly spoiled the fortunes of family firms in the second and third generation after the energetic founders. It was moreover a step away from individual initiative, towards collectivism and municipal and state-owned business. The railway companies, though still private business managed for the benefit of shareholders, were very unlike old family business. Meanwhile the great municipalities went into business to supply lighting, trams and other services to the taxpayers. The growth of the limited liability company and municipal business had important consequences. Such large, impersonal manipulation of capital and industry greatly increased the numbers and importance of shareholders as a class, an element in national life representing irresponsible wealth detached from the land and the duties of the landowners; and almost equally detached from the responsible management of business. During the nineteenth century, America, Africa, India, Australia and parts of Europe were being developed by British capital, and British shareholders were thus enriched by the world''s movement towards industrialization Towns like Bournemouth and Eastbourne sprang up to house large "comfortable" classes who had retired on their incomes, and who had no relation to the rest of the community except that of drawing dividends and occasionally attending a shareholders'' meeting to dictate their orders to the management. On the other hand "shareholding" meant leisure and freedom which was used by many of the later Victorians for the highest purpose of a great civilization. The "shareholders" as such had no knowledge of the lives, thoughts or needs of employees in the company in which he held shares, and his influence on the relations of capital and labour was not good. he paid manager acting for the company was in more direct relation with the workers and their demands, but even he had seldom familiar personal knowledge of the workmen which the employer had often had under the more patriarchal system of the old family business. Indeed the mere size of operations and the numbers of workmen involved rendered such personal relations impossible. Fortunately, however, the increasing power and organization of the trade unions, at least in all skilled trades, enabled the workmen to meet on equal terms the managers of the companies who employed them. The cruel discipline of the strike and lookout taught the two parties to respect each other''s strength and understand the value of fair negotiation.

阅读理解Languages will continue to diverge. Even if English were to become the universal language, it would still take many different forms. Indeed the same could happen to English as has happened to Chinese: a language of intellectuals which doesn''t vary hugely alongside a large number of variants used by local peoples. We will continue to teach other languages in some form, and not just for reasons of practicality. Learning a language is good for your mental health; it forces you to understand another cultural and intellectual system. So I hope British education will develop a more rational approach to the foreign languages available to students in line with their political importance. Because so many people believe it''s no longer important to know another language, I fear that time devoted to language teaching in schools may well continue to decline. But you can argue that learning another language well is more taxing than, say, learning to play chess well — it involves sensitivity to a set of complicated rules, and also to context. Technology will certainly make a difference to the use of foreign languages. Computers may, for instance, alleviate the drudgery that a vast translation represents. But no one who has seen a computer translation will think it can substitute for knowledge of the different languages. A machine will always be behind the times. Still more important is the fact that no computer will ever get at the associations beyond the words associations that may not be expressed but which carry much of the meaning. In languages like Arabic the context is very important. Languages come with heavy cultural baggage too — in French or German if you missed the cultural references behind a word you''re very likely to be missing the meaning. It will be very hard to teach all that to a computer. All the predictions are that English will be spoken by a declining proportion of the world''s population in the 21st century. I don''t think foreign languages will really become less important, but they might be perceived to be — and that would in the end be a very bad thing.

阅读理解In ancient Greece athletic festivals were very important and had strong religious association. The Olympian athletic festival held every four years in honor of Zeus, king of the Olympian Gods, eventually lost its local character, became first a national event and then, after the rules against foreign competitors had been abolished, international. No one knows exactly how far back the Olympic Games go, but some official records dated from 776 B. C. The games took place in August on the plain by Mount Olympus. Many thousands of spectators gathered from all parts of Greece, but no married woman was admitted even as a spectator. Slaves, women and dishonored persons were not allowed to compete. The exact sequence of events is uncertain, but events included boy''s gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, horse racing and field events, though there were fewer sports involved than in the modern Olympic Games. On the last day of the Games, all the winners were honored by having a ring of holy olive leaves placed on their heads. So great was the honor that the winner of the foot race gave his name to the year of his victory. Although Olympic winners received no prize money, they were, in fact, richly rewarded by their state authorities. How their results was compared with modern standards, we unfortunately have no means of telling. After an uninterrupted history of almost 1,200 years, the Games were suspended by the Romans in 394 A. D. They continued for such a long time because people believed in the philosophy behind the Olympics; the idea that a healthy body produced a healthy mind, and that the spirit of competition in sports and games was preferable to the competition that caused wars. It was over 1,500 years before another such international athletic gathering took place in Athens in 1886. Nowadays, the Games are held in different countries in turn. The host country provides vast facilities, including a stadium, swimming pools and living accommodation, but competing countries pay their own athletes'' expenses. The Olympics start with the arrival in the stadium of a torch, lighted on Mount Olympus by the sun''s rays. It is carried by a succession of runners to the stadium. The torch symbolized the continuation of the ancient Greek athletic ideals, and it burns throughout the Games until the closing ceremony. The well-known Olympic flag, however, is a modern conception; the five interlocking rings symbolize the uniting of all five continents participating in the Games.

阅读理解In recent decades the so-called Southeast Asian "tigers" have rivaled the western "lions" for stock cliches that make economic headlines. The myth of American economic hegemony over Asia in the imposing and patriarchal figure of Uncle Sam has provided frequent political grist for Southeast Asian political leaders, particularly Malaysia''s Prime Minister Mahathir. He has attempted to forge an international reputation as a snarling tiger, but lately sounds more like a barnyard dog whining at shadows. Without demeaning in any way the remarkable achievements of the newly developing economies of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, these nations at times appear to be their own worst enemies. This is often exemplified by Dr. Mahathir, who rails at Western bogey whenever an international or domestic crisis provides an opportunity. To be more specific, the recent devaluation of the Philippine and Thai currencies, and the subsequent pressure on the Malaysian currency has inspired Dr. Mahathir to launch an all-out attack on the West as the source of the problem. He even alleges that the United States has deliberately destabilized Southeast Asian economies in revenge for these nations, pandering to the military rule in Myanmar, an action which the United States seems to want censored rather than rewarded. But by resorting to such scapegoat, instead of accepting even a bit responsibility, the Prime Minister may undermine the future success of the region and Malaysia in particular. Upon further questioning, Dr. Mahathir narrowed his attack to one wealthy individual, the well-known philanthropist, Mr. George Soros, whose opposition to Myanmar''s admission to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Mahathir found particularly galling. The logical fallacies that underlie such conspiracy theories do not help Malaysia address the serious issues of economic overheating that experts have been warning about for all these difficult periods, ''which'' include large deficits and low savings to debt ratios. In fact, the recent dramatic drop in Malaysia''s stock market and currency has led Dr. Mahathir to reverse his initial approach to the crisis. He even announces measures that at least imply he is quite aware of excesses in his own administration''s spending policies that have contributed to this crisis of confidence. In the end, this kind of reaction undermines the esteem that Dr. Mahathir''s enlightened leadership has justly earned.

阅读理解If the population of the earth goes on increasing at its current rate, there will eventually not be enough resources left to sustain life in the planet. By the middle of the 21st century, if present trends go on, we will have used up all the oil that drives our cars, for example. Even if scientists develop new ways of feeding the human race, the crowded conditions on the earth will make it necessary for us to look for open space somewhere else. But none of the other planets in our solar system are capable of supporting life at present. One possible solution to the problem, however, has recently been suggested by an American scientist, Professor Cart Sagan. Sagan believes that before the earth''s resources are completely exhausted it will be possible to change that atmosphere of Venus and so create a new world almost as large as the earth itself. The difficulty is that Venus is much hotter than the earth and there is only a tiny amount of water there. Sagan proposes that algae organisms that can live in extremely hot or cold atmospheres and at the same time produce oxygen should be bred in conditions similar to those on Venus. As soon as this has been done, the algae will be placed in small rockets. Spaceships will then fly to Venus and fire the rockets into the atmosphere. In a fairly short time, the algae will break down the carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon. When the algae have done their work, the atmosphere will become cooler but before man can set foot on Venus, it will be necessary for the oxygen to produce rain. The surface of the planet will still be too hot for man to land on it but the rain will eventually fall and in a few years something like earth will be reproduced on Venus. If the experiments are successful, life will become possible there but it will not be pleasant at first. When they go to Venus, the first colonists will have to take plenty of water with them and get used to days and nights lasting 60 earth-days. But there will also be some advantages. The colonists will live longer because their hearts will suffer less strain than on the earth. Apart from that, they will be exploring a new world while those still in the earth are living in closed, uncomfortable conditions. Perhaps it will be the only way to ensure the survival of the human race. The prospect might be very promising but before all these come true, it is every one''s responsibility to protect the earth.

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