拓展阅读美文15篇

1.Bathing in the Ancient TimeLong before recorded history,our ancestors were bathing for pleasure and health. Man has found many interesting ways to take his bath.The earliest records often mention the use of rivers for bathing.The Bible speaks the healing waters of the River Jordan.Egyptian history mentions bathing in the Nile.And the Hindus have believed for centuries that the Ganges River has the power to clean the soul as well as the body.Several thousand years ago,the inhabitants of the island of Crete,in the eastern Mediterranean,built baths with running water.The early Jews took ceremonial bath on certain occasions,making use of oils and ointments.The Jews also had a custom of bathing the feet of all strangers that came within their gates.This friendly custom is still practiced in parts of Palestine.Swimming was popular among the Ancient Greeces.By the third century before Christ,almost every Greek city of a certain size had at least one public bath.The wealthy classes had private baths and pools,some of which were beautifully decorated.Many of the public baths that the Romans built utilized natural mineral springs. Since most of these springs were naturally warm the Romans took advantage of this free hot water.By the time of the Roman Emperors,these baths were often housed in large,marble buildings.The baths built by the Emperor Caracalls,in the center of Rome,covered about one square mile and could hold sixteen thousand people.The Roman baths were as richly ornamented as a palace.The floors were of marble and mosaic，and statues lined the walls.There were rooms in which the Romans could eat,read scrolls，and even watch plays.The baths included swimming pools,warm baths,steam baths and hot air baths.While public baths keep the Romans clean,they also helped to undermine their character.Men would spend the entire day relaxing lazily in these beautiful buildings.In fact,a famous Roman philosopher, Sencea,said the Romans were not satisfied unless their baths were ornamented with precious stones.While the men were being massaged and rubbed with perfumes and oils,they discussed their favorite games and gladiators.Sometimes wealthy bathers had the whole tub or pool filled with wines or perfumes.Many of the Roman women bathed in milk:the Emperor’s wife kept five hundred donkeys to carry the milk for her bath!2.School failure harder on girls than boysAcademic failure appears to trouble teen-age girls more deeply than boys,US researchers said on Tuesday.They said adolescent girls who areexpelled,suspended or drop out of high school before they graduate are more likely to have a period of serious depression by age21than boys with similar experiences.“For girls there are broader implications ofschool failure,”said Carolyn McCarty,a University of Washington researcher whose study appears in the Journal of Adolescent Health.“We already know that it leads to morepoverty,higher rates of being on public assistance and lower rates of job stability. And now this study shows it is having mental health implications for girls,”McCartysaid in a statement.The study was drawn from data on morethan800people in Seattle,Washington,and included people from18schools in high-crime neighborhoods.The group was split evenly by gender andnearly half were white,24percent were black,21percent were Asian-American and the rest were from other groups.Overall,45percent of the girls and68percent of the boys in the study experienced a major school failure,but22percent of the girls later became depressed compared with17percent for the boys.“This gender paradox shows that whileschool failure is more atypical for girls,it appears to have more severe consequences when it doesoccur,”McCarty said.3.Early verbal abuse may reduce language abilityChildren who are verbally abused may suffer lasting negative effects in their brain's ability to process language,researchers report.They say the new findings illustrate the seriousness of this type of abuse and should encourage greater action to combat it.Brain scans of people who were verbally abused as children showed that they have 10%less grey matter in the part of their brains involved in language,compared with non-abused adults.Martin Teicher at Harvard Medical School in Boston,Massachusetts,US,and colleagues used an exhaustive questionnaire to select17people who had suffered severe verbal abuse in childhood but not other forms of abuse.Experts define verbal abuse as frequent disparaging or critical comments that are intended to demean and diminish the victim's self-esteem,he explains.The team recruited17additional participants for the trial,matched for age and socioeconomic status,who had suffered no such abuse.Brain scans revealed that those who had experienced verbal abuse had a10% reduction in the size of a brain region known as the right superior temporal gyrus, compared with those who had not been abused.This part of the brain contains a section responsible for auditory processing and is believed to help the brain understand the tone of speech.The scans also showed a significant reduction in a small part of the left superior temporal gyrus,which is thought to be involved in understanding the syntax of speech.Teicher speculates that verbal abuse might inhibit development in the superior temporal gyrus,perhaps by triggering a pathway that stops growth hormones from reaching it.The new experiment does not necessarily establish a causal link:the abnormalities could be a genetically inherited trait.But Teicher suspects the relationship is causal. For example,previous research has shown that victims of sexual abuse by non-relatives have decreased development in the visual processing parts of the brain,compared with people who have not suffered such abuse.The brain abnormalities seen in the verbal abuse victims appear to be related to reduced language skills,Teicher adds.The subjects in the study who had experienced verbal abuse scored about112on a test of verbal IQ,on average,while their control counterparts had a score of about124.“I think they didn't reach their full potential,”he says of the students who suffered verbal abuse and scored lower on the test.The results are important because they contribute to a growing body of evidence that the stress caused by early abuse-including neglect-can disrupt the normal development of brain“circuits”,says Barbara Rawn of Prevent Child Abuse America,in Chicago,Illinois,US.Teicher believes that parents have begun to grasp the negative effects of physically reprimanding their children,but he fears that parents may feel that no harm is done by frequently reprimanding their children with disparaging comments.“Verbal abuse really has a long-term effect on a child,”says Rawn.“There’s a lot of incredible anger that shows up in kids that have been told they are worth nothing.”She adds that some children who have been verbally abused sometimes develop behavioural traits such as extreme aggression,or instead become overly compliant.4.Most Internet Friends Are False FriendsAccording to a new study,the growth of websites like Facebook and Myspace means people now have record numbers of occasional friends.A typical“social networking”user now lists at least150“friends”on his home page.A recent research,based on interviews with around200users,found that only a handful are genuine friends.The rest are the online equivalent of friendly faces on a train or high street.Social networking sites are the fastest growing Internet phenomenon.Facebook now has four million users in Britain—compared to500,000a year ago.The site allows people to display information about themselves,their latest photographs,links to favorite websites,gossip,video clips and music with other people.The information can be made available to anyone—or just to selected friends.In order to make a friend on Facebook,the user sends a message to his target.The receiver can then choose whether to reciprocate.Although fans of social networking websites say they encourage genuine relationship,people who use the sites tend to have around five close friends—the same number as people who stay away from the Internet.“People find that face-to-face communication is essential if they are going to be friends”,said an expert.“It is very easy to be deceptive if you cannot see or hear someone whom you are communicating with.”However,the sites encourage people to have more acquaintances—the sort of people you might nod to in the street.Most of its users are in their teens or20s, although the number of older people using the site is growing.Stephen is one of such users.Within a couple of weeks of signing up,he was deluged with150requests a day,and was forced to hide his page from public view.Social networking sites are also fuelling a new hobby of people collecting.Where once people collected stamps,coins and butterflies,they now rack up thousands of names they claim are“friends”,some people collect friends like boys collect Airfix models.It’s not uncommon to see sites with1,000friends.Most are weak friends, while some are trophy friends.5.Post-Vacation BluesPost-vacation doldrums affect35percent of Spain’s younger workers,with symptoms including insomnia,loss of appetite,irregular heartbeat and feelings of despair,researchers reported.Spanish workers of any age can and do get the summer’s-end blues,but those most vulnerable are people aged25-40,who tend to holiday,with no transition period,said ANEPA(National Association of Accredited Preventive Entities),a private association of work place safety monitors.As most Spanish get a month off per year,one trick is to space that time out over the course of the year rather than blow it all at once in the summer,the study said.Also,besides spending a few days at home before going back to work,it is a good idea to avoid returning on a Monday.This“can worsen the situation,”said ANEPA.“We should go back on some other day of the week,thus reducing the psychological impact of returning to work.”In a separate study,the Spanish Society for Family and Community Medicine said other symptoms of the post-vacation doldrums are go right back to work after returning from their fatigue,stomach cramps,trouble breathing, sluggishness and crankiness.Its tips for getting over it are to ease back into one’s job, be aware that such doldrums are fleeting,don’t make important decisions while under the influence of them and,finally,this,“Look at the return to work as a new period in life in which you can do new activities leading to personal growth.”6.It was late in the afternoon,and I was putting the final touch on a piece of writing that I was feeling pretty good about.I wanted to save it,but my cursor had frozen.I tried to shut the computer down,and it seized up altogether.Unsure of what else to do,I yanked(用力猛拉)the battery out.Unfortunately,Windows had been in the midst of a delicate and crucial undertaking. The next morning,when I turned my computer back on,it informed me that a file had been corrupted and Windows would not load.Then,it offered to repair itself by using the Windows Setup CD.I opened the special drawer where I keep CDs.But no Windows CD in there.I was forced to call the computer company's Global Support Centre.My call was answered by a woman in some unnamed,far-off land.I find it annoying to make small talk with someone when I don't know what continent they're standing on.Suppose I were to comment on the beautiful weather we've been having when there was a monsoon at the other end of the phone?So I got right to the point.“My computer is telling me a file is corrupted and it wants to fix itself,but I don'thave the Windows Setup CD.”“So you're having a problem with your Windows Setup CD.”She has apparently been dozing and,having come to just as the sentence ended,was attempting to cover for her inattention.It quickly became clear that the woman was not a computer technician.Her job was to serve as a gatekeeper,a human shield for the technicians.Her sole duty,as far as I could tell,was to raise global stress levels.To make me disappear,the woman gave me the phone number for Windows'creator, Microsoft.This is like giving someone the phone number for,I don't know,North America.Besides,the CD worked;I just didn't have it.No matter how many times I repeated my story,we came back to the same place.She was calm and resolutely polite.When my voice hit a certain decibel(分贝),I was passed along,like a hot,irritable potato,to a technician.“You don’t have the Windows Setup CD,ma’am,because you don’t need it,”he explained cheerfully.“Windows came preinstalled on your computer!”“But I do need it.”“Yes,but you don’t have it.”We went on like this for a while.Finally,he offered to walk me through the use of a different CD,one that would erase my entire system.“Of course,you’d lose all your e-mail,your documents,your photos."It was like offering to drop a safe on my head to cure my headache."You might be able to recover them,but it would be expensive.”He sounded delighted.“And it’s not covered by the warranty(产品保证书)!”The safe began to seem like a good idea, provided it was full.I hung up the phone and drove my computer to a small,friendly repair place I’d heard about.A smart,helpful man dug out a Windows CD and told me it wouldn't be a problem.An hour later,he called to let me know it was ready.I thanked him,and we chatted about the weather,which was the same outside my window as it was outside his.7.Not long ago,a mysterious Christmas card dropped through our mail slot.The envelope was addressed to a man named Raoul,who,I was relatively certain,did not live with us.The envelope wasn't sealed,so I opened it.The inside of the card was blank.Ed,my husband,explained that the card was both from and to the newspaper deliveryman.His name was apparently Raoul,and Raoul wanted a holiday tip.We were meant to put a check inside the card and then drop the envelope in the mail. When your services are rendered at4a.m.,you can't simply hang around,like a hotel bellboy expecting a tip.You have to be direct.So I wrote a nice holiday greeting to this man who,in my imagination,fires The New York Times from his bike aimed at our front door,causing more noise with mere newsprint than most people manage with sophisticated black market fireworks.With a start,I realized that perhaps the reason for the4a.m.wake-up noise was not ordinary rudeness but carefully executed spite:I had not tipped Raoul in Christmasespast.I honestly hadn't realized I was supposed to.This was the first time he'd used the card tactic.So I got out my checkbook.Somewhere along the line,holiday tipping went from an optional thank-you for a year of services to a Mafia-style protection racket(收取保护费的黑社会组织).Several days later,I was bringing our garbage bins back from the curb when I noticed an envelope taped to one of the lids.The outside of the envelope said MICKEY.It had to be another tip request,this time from our garbage collector.Unlike Raoul,Mickey hadn't enclosed his own Christmas card from me.In a way,I appreciated the directness.“I know you don't care how merry my Christmas is,and that's fine,”the gesture said.“I want$30,or I'll'forget'to empty your garbage bin some hot summer day.”I put a check in the envelope and taped it back to the bin.The next morning,Ed noticed that the envelope was gone,though the trash hadn't yet been picked up: "Someone stole Mickey's tip!"Ed was quite certain.He made me call the bank and cancel the check.But Ed had been wrong.Two weeks later,Mickey left a letter from the bank on our steps.The letter informed Mickey that the check,which he had tried to cash,had been cancelled.The following Tuesday morning,when Ed saw a truck outside,he ran out with his wallet."Are you Mickey?"The man looked at him with scorn."Mickey is the garbageman.I am the recycling." Not only had Ed insulted this man by hinting that he was a garbageman,but he had obviously neglected to tip him.Ed ran back inside for more funds.Then he noticed that the driver of the truck had been watching the whole transaction.He peeled off another twenty and looked around,waving bills in the air."Anyone else?"Had we consulted the website of the Emily Post Institute,this embarrassing breach of etiquette(礼节)could have been avoided.Under"trash/recycling collectors"in the institute's Holiday Tipping Guidelines,it says:"$10to$30each."You may or may not wish to know that your pet groomer,hairdresser,mailman and UPS guy all expect a holiday tip.8.Soccer-mad Thai Monks Too Tired to Take AlmsBuddhist monks in Thailand are too tired to receive early morning alms because they are staying up late to watch the World Cup,a Thai newspaper reported on Wednesday. The Nation quoted a woman in the northern city of Chiang Mai who said her birthday celebrations were ruined because monks at a city temple were not awake to receive her morning offering,a mandatory religious ritual in the predominately Buddhist country.The woman,who declined to be identified,said she was told by a senior monk that most of his young colleagues were still asleep because they had stayed up to watch the games which can go on well past midnight.The Sangha Council,which oversees the tens of thousands of Buddhist temples in Thailand,has not banned monks from watching the World Cup but said it should not interfere with religious activities.Chiang Mai chief monk said he had received complaints about “inappropriate behavior”at seven temples in the province.“It is the duty of the abbot of each temple to supervise the behavior of young monks,making sure that their religious activities will not be affected by the games,”he said.In neighboringCambodia,some40,000monks have been warned they could be defrocked if they became too excited while watching the games.“If they make noise or cheer as they watch,they will lose their monkhood,”the chief monk said.9.Farewell to Wash DayScientists have developed a coating that enables fabric to clean itself,breaking down dirt and stains when exposed to sunlight.Suitable for use on cotton,silk,wool and other natural fibers,the self-cleaning coating could be used to create sheets,duvet covers and pillow cases which never need to be washed.In a research by scientists from Australia and Hong Kong,red wine stains on pieces of wool started to fade within a few minutes of exposure to light and had all but vanished within a day.Similarly,stained ties and skirts became as good as new after a few hours under the sun.Scientists’design revolves around coating fabrics in a thin layer of titanium dioxide nano particles—each of which is2,500times smaller than the width of a human hair.Exposure to sunlight triggers a reaction in the tiny particles,causing them to react with the oxygen in the air and breaking down dirt.Similar technology is already used to create self-cleaning windows.Its ability to dissolve hard-to-remove food stains could also herald the end of the early-morning dash to the dry cleaner with a wine-stained silk tie or a coffee-splattered woolen skirt.The researchers say the process is kinder to fabrics than the chemicals used in dry cleaning,and the coating does not alter the texture or feel of fabrics.There are,however,concerns that self-cleaning fabrics might not be as hardwearing as their conventional alternatives.It is thought it will take around five years to refine the technology for use in self-cleaning clothes.This technology has such a big potential impact on our laundry habits that many washing powder manufacturers are developing self-cleaning sprays in a bid to grab a slice of the action.10.How Names are Called in America?People generally call each other by their first names much sooner in their acquaintance than people do in other walks of life.Taking that liberty too soon has closed many doors for the offender.Therefore,one must sense the proper moment to drop formal address and adopt subtle measures to prevent unwelcome intimate address.If you have been accepted into a group,however important first names are in the world’s eyes,it would be clear for you to continue beyond a certain time to call them by their last names,such as Mr.Robinson and Mrs.Harvin．If an older woman enjoys having young people call her first name,she will ask you to do so－otherwise don’t.In the business circle,many people think it demeaning to be called by the first name，it is best to use‘Mr.’‘Miss’with a business superior or an employer.A divorcee can ask the courts for her maiden name if there are no children.But usually the woman of taste,with or without children,takes after divorce her maiden name with the divorced husband’s name.The remarried divorcee with children does not include her divorced husband’s name in her new one.The children retain their real father’s name,unless by legal adoption they take the name of the mother’s new husband.Husband and wife call each other“Mr.”and“Mrs.”when speaking to peoplewho are not their equals.To acquaintances they call each other“my husband”and “my wife”.To friends,they refer to each other their first names.Army officers are called by their titles in speech.Catholic priests are called “Father”,A senator is customarily called“Senator”all of his life.A congressman is called“Mr.”both in and out of office.An ambassador is called“Mr.Ambassador”.11.Are passwords passé?It’s starting to seem like it.Everybody hates them,and nobody can remember all the ones they’ve created.These days a typical netizen has dozens of online accounts.If you really want to be safe,you need to have a different password for each one,and each password needs to be incredibly complicated,with a mix of capital letters,symbols,and numbers.Who can keep all that stuff in their head?Most people don’t bother.Some just make up one password and use it everywhere. Others might have a few passwords—one for all their banking and financial stuff,one for their social networks,one for email.Problem is that if one site gets hacked,the bad guys now have the password that you use elsewhere.These hacks are happening so frequently these days that you might as well assume there is no way to keep a password secret.In one recent attack on Sony,millions of accounts were exposed.Computer scientists realize the system is broken,and they’re looking for alternatives. But most attempts haven’t been very good.Fingerprint readers require special hardware,and a lot of people find them creepy and don’t want to use them.Smart cards and tokens can be lost or stolen.“We’ve tried all sorts of other approaches,but we end up back with passwords.They’re the least worst in a series of bad options,”says Rich Mogull,CEO of Securosis,a security consultancy.Markus Jakobsson,a veteran security researcher with a Ph.d.in computer science,has come up with something he calls“fastwords.”Instead of inventing a gobbledygook password,you join three simple words that come from a thought known only to you. If one day you were driving to work and ran over a frog that ended up flat,you might choose“frog work flat.”Some advantages:You can enter the three words in any order(“flat frog work”),and the system still knows that you’re you.If you totally blank,the fastword system will tell you one of the three words,which should enable you to remember the original thought and thus the three keywords.Jakobsson says one large service provider is evaluating the fastwords concept.Fastwords represents a step in the right direction,but it’s not the promised land. Someone,somehow,needs to come up with something radically different—and radically better—than what we have today.12.Scientists See More Deadly Weather,but Dispute the CauseWASHINGTON—The United States experienced some of the most extreme weather events in its history this spring,including deadly outbreaks of tornadoes, near-record flooding,drought and wildfires.Damages from these disasters have already passed$32billion,and the hurricane season,which is just beginning,is projected to be above average,according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Government scientists said Wednesday that the frequency of extreme weather has increased over the past two decades,in part as a result of global warming caused by the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.But they were careful not to blame humans for this year’s rash of deadly events, saying that in some ways weather patterns were returning to those seen at the beginning of the last century.“Looking at long-term patterns since1980,indeed,extreme climatological and meteorological events have increased,”said Thomas R.Karl,director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center.“But in the early part of the20th century,there was also a tendency for more extreme events followed by a quiet couple of decades.”Presenting a new NOAA report on2011extreme weather,Dr.Karl said that extremes of precipitation have increased as the planet warms and more water evaporates from the oceans.He also said models suggest that as carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere and heats the planet,droughts will increase in frequency and intensity.“But it is difficult and unlikely to discern a human fingerprint,if there is one,on the drought record of the United States,”he said.Some other climate scientists were more categorical about the human contribution to extreme climate events.Kevin Trenberth,distinguished senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research,a university-sponsored institute in Boulder,Colo.,said that when the greenhouse effect caused by burning fossil fuels is added to the natural variability of climate,weather disasters can be expected to occur more frequently.“Global warming is contributing to an increased incidence of extreme weather because the environment in which all storms form has changed from human activities,”Dr.Trenberth said in a telephone interview Wednesday.“Records are not just broken,they are smashed.It is as clear a warning as we are going to get about prospects for the future.”April was a particularly devastating month for tornadoes and rainfall,with875 tornadoes reported during the month and heavy rain and snowmelt contributing to Mississippi River flooding later in the spring that surpassed the historic floods of 1927and1937,NOAA reported.So far this year,there have been nearly1,400preliminary tornado reports nationwide;those reports will most likely be whittled down to about900confirmed tornadoes,the second-highest annual total recorded in modern times.The record is 1,011confirmed tornadoes in2008.The year also is on track to be one of the deadliest,with536fatalities so far from tornadoes,placing2011in sixth place in United States history and the deadliest since1936,NOAA reported.13.The richest man in America stepped to the podium and declared war on the nation’s school systems.High schools had become“obsolete”and were “limiting—even ruining—the lives of millions of Americans every year.”The situation had become“almost shameful.”Bill Gates,prep-school grad and college dropout,had come before the National Governors Association seeking converts to his plan to do something about it—a plan he would back with$2billion of his own cash.Has this big money made the big impact that they—as well as teachers, administrators,parents,and students—hoped for?In the first-of-its-kind analysis of the billionaires’efforts,NEWSWEEK and the Center for Public Integrity studied the numbers on graduation rates and test scores in10major urban districts—from New York City to Oakland—which got windfalls from these four top philanthropists.The results,though mixed,are dispiriting proof that money alone can’t repair the desperate state of urban education.For all the millions spent on reforms,nine of the 10school districts studied substantially trailed their state’s proficiency and graduation rates—often by10points or more.That’s not to say that the urban districts didn’t make gains.The good news is many did improve and at a rate faster than their states60 percent of the time—proof that the billionaires made some solid bets.But those improvements weren’t enough to erase the deep gulf between poor,inner-city schools, where the big givers focused,and their suburban and rural counterparts.“A lot of things we do don’t work out,”admitted Broad,a product of Detroit public schools and Michigan State who made a fortune in home building and financial services.“But we can take the criticism.”The bottom line?The billionaires expected A-plus impact and came away with B-minus to C-minus results,according to the NEWSWEEK/CPI investigation,which was based on specially commissioned data and internal.Despite the money,graduation rates in Oakland actually fell by6percentage points—though less than the rest of California’s schools,which fell by9points.In Houston,graduation rates dropped about6points,while the remainder of Texas fell only2.Graduation rates in New York City,on the other hand,while still trailing state averages significantly,improved markedly—up18points,compared with the state’s 10-point rise.Washington,D.C.’s graduation rates dropped slightly,while students’math and reading proficiency generally improved(not being part of a state,its reading and math performance was measured against the district’s independent charter schools).The city’s education achievements,which have helped fuel a national debate over education reform captured in the hit documentary Waiting for Superman,have lately come under investigation amid suspicions of cheating(a charge the city’s。