外研社选修七Module4阅读材料

Module3Great Expectations(远大前程)Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, is an orphan who lives with his sister and her husband. The family is poor and Pip’s sister does not treat him very well. One day the boy helps a starving convict called Abel Magwitch. Magwitch has escaped from prison but is soon caught again and sent to Australia in a prison ship.Some months later, Pip is invited to visit a lonely but wealthy old lady called Miss Havisham. At her house, Pip meets and becomes very fond of a beautiful girl called Estella, who live there. However, Estella is cold and cruel to him, always telling him that she is “better” than him. She is encouraged in this by Miss Havisham, whose fiancé left her on her wedding day, and who, as a result, hates all men.Some years later, Pip learns that an unknown person intends to give him money every month. Pip believes that it is Miss Havisham who has done this for him. With this money, he goes to London, becomes educated and is able to live very comfortably.Magwitch returns to England illegally, having made a lot of money in Australia. He finds Pip and tells him that it is he, Magwitch, who has been giving Pip the money. He has been doing this in order to repay the boy’s kindness. Sadly, Magwitch is caught by the polic e and dies. We learn that Estella is in fact Magwitch’s daughter. She marries Bentley Drummle, a wealthy man who treats her very badly, but dies when he is quite young.Meanwhile, Pip leaves England and has a successful career. He returns and meets Estella, who has at last learnt the meaning of love. The two marry.1. 用单词的适当形式或填出适当单词完成句子。

2. 分析句子1.2 (句型及特殊用法等)1. He finds Pip and tells him that it is he, Magwitch, _________ has been giving Pip the money._________________________________________________________________________________ 2. She marries Bentley Drummle, a wealthy man ________treats her very badly, but _________(die) when he is quite young._________________________________________________________________________________ 3.Pip learns that an unknown person intends to give him money every month.________ this money, he goes to London and becomes _________(educate)._________________________Dickens’ cast of characters lived in London, the largest and richest city in the world. But its wealth was distributed unfairly among the population. Every chapter of his novels describes the sights, sounds, and smells of the city, and provides a social commentary of London life.In the middle of the 19th century, London was a filthy city for rich and poor people alike. Although on clear days, the air was filled with sparrows and seagulls flying high above, more often the smoking chimney pipes created smog which was so strong that it choked the inhabitants. The River Thames was polluted, causing disease and death everywhere, and if you fell in, it was dangerous to swallow the water.The East End was London’s poorest district, where children wore rags for clothes and the women searched in dustbins for food. Few people could ever hope to attain an acceptable standard of living. Many people suffered from the effects of poor nutrition and even starvation because of a lack of food, yet their welfare was of no concern to the taxpayers of London. Ships from all points of the compass would drop anchor here at the main port of London. South of the river lies Southwark, another poor district. The George Inn was a busy coaching stop with food and accommodation for travelers leaving London, and for carriers taking goods into the city.But some Londoners had accumulated enormous wealth through trade. In the old City of London are housed the many banks and corporations which Dickens mentions. Further west and opposite Southwark stands Somerset House, where Dickens’ father worked for the navy. Close by are the law courts, where lawyers and their clerks, carrying piles of paperwork, would hurry to the trials. There were many squares and gardens with water pumps and fountains, as well as smart restaurants and pubs.Servants would buy fruit and vegetables at Covent Garden market for their rich families, and maids would buy bunches of flowers to decorate their mistresses’ rooms.The West End is the theatre district where Dickens felt at home because, surprisingly ,he thought he would accomplish more with his drama than with his novels. It is also the London of government, where politicians, ministers, ambassadors as well as more humble pedestrians walked home at night through streets lit with gas lanterns.London is very different today, and few people mourn the passing of the old city. But you can still see many of the sights which Dickens saw and wrote about in his novels.1. Choose the best title for the passage.A. Previous LondonB. The description of LondonC. The past and present LondonD.Dickens’ London2. Read the underlined part, try to figure out their meanings and remember them.Module 4Music Born in AmericaPassage1: All You Need to Know About Hip HOPPART1What is hip hop and how did it start?Hip hop is an American cultural movement which started in the 1970s and block parties in New York, especially in a district called the Bronx. There are four main aspects of hip hop: breakdance and graffiti art plus two types of hip hop music – DJ-ing and rapping. Rapping is also known as MC- ing (coming from the term master of ceremonies). The DJs at block parties in the 1970s played a lot of soul music and they noticed that people preferred the percussion breaks in the songs because they were the best parts to dance to. So they started repeating the percussion breaks. This is a technique used by DJs in Jamaica. There were a lot of Jamaicans in New York who brought the idea with them. At first, they played a lot of reggae.PART2What was the big breakthrough?DJ Herc, one of the most popular Jamaican D Js at the time, noticed that New York audiences didn’t really like reggae music, so he started playing other kinds of music, including rock and disco music. The percussion breaks were usually short, but Herc and other DJs made them longer by using two records on two turntables, side by side. Some of the DJs began speaking and shouting while the music played. Shouting DJs became known as MCs. And so the style of music known as rap was born.At the beginning, MCs often performed for hours, repeating words and phrases and then improvising. Later, they experimented with different vocal and rhythmic approaches, using rhyming words, often words from African-American culture. At the same time, people started breakdancing at block parties.MC Dark Star rem embers the first time he heard a rap singer. “The moment I heard it,” he said, “I knew itwas a completely new kind of music.”PART3Why was hip hop so successful?There are two main reasons. Firstly, it’s cheap and easy –you just need two turntables and a microphone. Anyone can be an MC, using songs which have already been recorded.Secondly, people were bored with the pop music of the day – disco music and rock music were both in decline in the mid-1970s. however, disco music had a strong beat, and it was easy to dance to. Hip hop took advantage of that and provided a kind of disco music for people who hated disco.PART4How did rap singers record their songs?Te first time that rap artists recorded their music, musicians recorded the backing tracks (the music without the singing) in the studio and the rappers added their vocals later. The next generation of rappers recorded their vocals at the same time as the musicians.New York was the capital of hip hop during the 1980s, and the style was known as East Coast rap. The style soon spread to other parts of the United States. There were a lot of West Coast rappers based in California. In Miami, Florida, a new style developed, strongly influenced by Cuban and Puerto Rican music.In the late 1980s, hip hop spread across the world, to Japan, India and many parts of Europe, especially France, Belgium and Italy. In England, a new music form emerged, called trip hop, a mixture of jazz, hip hop and electronic music (for example, music played on computers).Music Born in Hong KongFrom a region of seven million people has arisen some of the greatest pop music in the world. As well as attracting huge audiences in its Hong Kong home, Cantopop has spread offshore, and its stars are known in Beijing, London and New York. Music born in Hong Kong is booming.In most of the world, pop music is a sign of friction between generations. But Cantopop expresses only harmony and virtue, and Hong Kong is blessed with the most conventional music scene in the wor ld. The stars don’t wear fancy clothes. The women wear clean blouses and the men wear pressed slacks. They’re so neat and well-behaved that any mom would want their kids to watch them. And the consensus of most people is that the music is very good. But it is… well, different from anywhere else.Their fans expect regular makeovers. You can’t budget for looking good, you just need a blankcheque and a fashion consultant. Singer Kelly Chen changes her image once every three months. But she claims she isn’t vain.As a bonus for their fans, nearly every Cantopop singer also acts in the movies, from Jackie Cheung to Faye Wong. Andy Lau regularly stars in tough guy roles and romantic comedies, and their movie DVDs and VCDs sell worldwide.Hong Kong stars work hard, and the pace is hot. Some make ten movies a year, others record four CDs as well as keeping to a tight schedule of concerts and TV shows. Last year 20-year-old Nicholas, Tse released five albums, and his spokeswoman says that he just has to meet the deadline. Otherwise, he will soon be abandoned by his company and his fans. When new albums come out, the stars are marketed like consumer products, as teenagers spend their allowance on the latest songs. It’s far from being a part-time job.The fans are devoted to their stars. Online they swap information about their super heroes. They yell their names at concerts and beg for autographs. The Kings of Cantopop are Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Leon Lai, and Andy Lau and their fame is their pens ion, and they won’t quit the concert stage for the rest of their lives. But the new talent isn’t far behind. They include Hacken Lee, Andy Hui, Leo Ku, and Edmond Yung. Sammi Cheng easily sells a million albums a year. Their fans find the music clean and refreshing, and the songs are easy to sing in karaoke bars.Cantopop isn’t just a type of pop music but a musical empire. Any music which has millions of fans around the world must be doing something right.如有侵权请联系告知删除，感谢你们的配合！。