英语泛读教程2-推荐下载

Unit 1 Text 1 The Shadowland of DreamsI About the authorAlex Haley 1925-1992 American biographer scriptwriter author who became famous with the publication of the novel Roots which traces his ancestry back to Africa and covers seven American generations as they are taken slaves to the United States The book was adapted to television series and woke up an interest in genealogy particularly among African-Americans Alex Haley was born in Ithaca New York His father was a teacher of agriculture The family moved to the small town of Henning Tennessee when Alex Haley was an infant In Henning Haley heard stories from maternal grandmother Cynthia Palmer who traced the family genealogy to Haleys great-great-great-great-grandfather who was an African called Kin-Tay and brought by slave-ship to America Haley did not excel at school or university During World War Two Haley enlisted in the Coast Guard and started to write adventure stories After twenty years of service Haley left the Coast Guard in 1959 to become a full-time writer II Language notes1 When I left a 20-year-career in the Coast Guard to become a freelance writer I had no prospect at all当我放弃在海岸警卫队做了二十年的工作而成为一名自由撰稿人时我的前途渺茫A freelance writer is a writer who earns his money without being in the regular employment of any particular organization2 It didnt even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom房子里冷嗖嗖的也没有卫生间就连这也没有什么关系Thethat-clause is the real subject standing for the first "it"3 On the phone was an old acquaintance from the Coast Guard now stationed in San Francisco打电话来的是一位海岸警卫队供过职的老熟人现在在旧金山The sentence structure is inverted for the subject is too long4 He had once lent me a few bucks and liked to egg me about it他曾经借给我几美元总喜欢喋喋不休地要我还给他Egg here means to encourage strongly or to urge persistently eg I didnt want to accept her offer but Peter kept egging me on5 From deep inside a bull-headed resolution welled up我的内心深处升起一个坚强的信念Well up means to flow or start to flow and here well is used as a verbeg Anger was welling up in himBlood was welling out from the wound6 Rumor had it that if a customer ordered steak the singer would dash to a supermarket across the street to buy one据传如果有客人在餐馆里点了牛排这位歌手会火速跑去街对面的超市为他买一个Rumor has it that is a common sentence pattern meaning that people are saying7 Id be hard pressed to say which means the most to me我很难说哪一个对我最重要Be hard pressed means to feel it very difficultUnit 1 Text Isambard Kingdom BrunelI About the authorMiles Kington is an English humorist and a regular columnistII About Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Portsea on 9th April 1806 to an English mother and a French father His father Marc Brunel was a French monarchist whose continuing residence in revolutionary France had made life there somewhat uncomfortable When working in New York Marcconceived and patented machines to produce wooden pulley-blocks for the worlds navies This tackle block technology was adopted by the British AdmiraltyIsambard had a French and English education The technical side included mathematics and apprenticeship with Breguet a precision-instrument maker Further practical experience came from working in the family engineering office and at the Maudsley engineering works Throughout his life Isambard the engineering star never stopped working on projects which called for complex organizational ability In 1859 he died from overwork His life was a hectic sequence of ambitious high-risk leading-edge projects involving complex tasks new technology people politics investors and funding In order to commemorate him Brunel University is named after himIII Language notes1 Looking back through my career I can see that everything fortunate that has happened to me has come about through a misfortune in some other undertaking回顾我的事业我发现凡在我身上发生的幸运之事皆出于其他某个背运之事Come about means to happen esp in a way that seemsimpossible to preventeg How did it come about that he knew where we were2 He was a Frenchman by birth and was destined for the priesthood他出生时是法国人而且已经决定要他当牧师Be destined for means intended esp by fate for some special purpose eg Coming from a theatrical family I was destined for a career on the stageIt was destined that they would marry3 He would no doubt have prospered well in France were it not for a little event called the Revolution which caused him to flee France to the USA with a price on his head毫无疑问倘若不是因为那次名为法国大革命的小事件有人悬赏父亲头颅以致他从法国逃至美国他在法国肯定会发展很好Note the sentence is in the subjunctive mood and before "were it" if is omitted4 But I was resolved to make the best of a bad job但是我下定决心要尽量利用这个不利境遇Make the best of a bad job means to accept in a cheerful way bad or unsatisfactory conditions and do the best one can in the situation5 All would have been well had not the money run out如果不是经费耗尽的话一切会进展得很顺利Note that the subjunctive mood is used in the sentence and the word if is omitted6 I was you will recall in Bristol on account of an illness and had stayed there on account of a botched bridge 你还记得我是因为生病才来到了布里斯托尔呆在那儿是因为一座蹩脚的桥梁On account of means because ofeg Tom delayed his departure on account of the bad weatherUnit 2 Text 1 A Very Special GooseI About the authorIsaac Asimov1920-1992 Russian-born US author and editor of science fiction and nonfiction Asimov was born in Petrovichi Russia but his family moved to the United States in 1923 and settled in New York where his parents opened a sweet-shop After leaving the boys high school in Brooklyn Asimov studied chemistry at Columbia University New York where he graduated in 1939 and received his MA in 1941 During World War II Asimov worked in the US Naval Air Experimental Station alongside L Sprague de Camp and Robert A Heinlein Towards the end of the war he served in the army as a corporal In 1949 Asimov joined the Boston University School of Medicine where he worked as an associate professor of biochemistry Although he soon gained the reputation as one of the best lecturers he devoted himself to writing He remained an associate professor until 1979 and subsequently held the title of professor Asimovs first tales appeared in science-fiction magazines in 1939 Most of Asimovs books are pure adventure good entertainment solving all kinds of problems of human society and technology Among his most popular works are the "Foundation" novels - basedloosely on the fall of the Roman Empire - and "Robot" novels and stories Isaac Asimov was a professional writer of renowned versatility He was called a genius and "the nearest thing to a human writing machine" and was perhaps best known as one of the major scien。