题目内容

拓展与应用

  A look at the presidency

  The President of the United States has one of the toughest jobs in the world. Hardly anyone else is watched so closely by so many people. Reporters follow the President relentlessly, eager for his opinion on everything from nuclear warheads to the outcome of the Super Bowl. The President must be careful at all times that his answers to reporters' questions reflect his policies. In addition, wherever the President may go, he never for a moment escapes the responsibilities of his office. The evening news may show him on a working vacation, but the word is always with him.

  Then why have so many people wanted to be President? One reason may be that the Presidency is also one of the most powerful jobs in the world. As President John F. Kennedy said, “All the needs and aspirations of all parts of the country, all departments of government, all nations of the world” are focused on him.

  Who Can Be President?

  The job seems to demand a person of outstanding ability, so you might think the U.S. Constitution would contain a long list of job qualifications. However, it lists only three. Article Ⅱ, Section 1 of the Constitution states that the President must

  1.be a natural-born citizen of the United States;

  2.be at least 35 years old;

  3.have been a resident of the United States for 14 years.

  Though the qualifications for Vice President are not stated in the constitution, they are the same as the qualifications for President, since the Vice President might have to replace the President.

  While the Constitution lists only three qualifications for the Presidency, the voters certainly consider many others. Among these are intelligence, good health, experience in government, ability to lead others, knowledge of national and world affairs, personality, ability to speak well, and persuasiveness.

Question for discussion

According to the Constitution, the President can be either a man or a woman. So far, however, no woman has become President. What reasons can you give to explain this? Do you think a woman will be President in the future? Why or why not?

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拓展与应用

Jean Driscoll

  Jean Driscoll can go faster in her wheelchair than the world's best marathoners' can run!

  In April, Jean finished the Boston Marathon in 1 hour 34 minutes 22 seconds. That's about 33 minutes faster than the winning male runner! She competes on the track, too. She was second in the 800-meter wheelchair demonstration race at the 1992 Olympics.

  Jean doesn't like to be told she's brave. “I'm not in sports because I'm courageous,” she says. “It's because I'm a competitive person!” Jean was born with spins bifida, a birth defect that damages the spine. She began to use a wheelchair to get around in high school. Then she tried wheelchair soccer and was amazed. “Players banged each other and fell out of their chairs,” she says. “It was fun.”

  Jean tried other wheelchair spots. At the University of Illinois, her wheelchair basketball team won two national titles.

  Now Jean coaches and teaches. She tries to get people to set goals. “When I sign my autograph,” says Jean,” I write, “Dream big and work hard.”

  Winford Haynes

  Winford Haynes was about 7 years old when a doctor told him he had a disease that would make him blind before he turned 30. The disease is retinitis pigmentosa, which makes the retina deteriorate.

  Winford, age 39, is blind now. But he doesn't think about it much——he's too busy! He teaches physical education at a school for blind adults and teaches judo to blind and sighted people at a youth center in Alamorgordo, New Mexico.

  Winford also competes in track and judo. “Judo is a good sport for a blind person because you use your sense of touch,” says Winford.

  At the 1992 Summer Paralympics, Winford finished fourth in the 200-meter dash and sixth in judo.

  “What I do is a statement to my students,” he says, “it says,” You have lost your vision. It's no reason to stop living. If you want to do soothing, find a way to do it.”

Question for discussion

When Driscoll signs her autograph, she writes “Dream big and work hard.” What do you think of this advice? Why?

拓展与应用:

  When I was about 15, we had our first serious campout(野营). By “serious” I mean we actually brought food to cook-not food to open.

  I was a pretty normal kid growing up-I loved to camp. My only problem was I watched too many Rambo movies(兰博影片), so a small gaggle of Rambonites and myself went out on the weekend to “rough it”. (Twinkies and Vienna sausages are bare essentials, I swear.) Actually we didn't usually set out to rough it; it's just that we always forgot most of our equipment, and no one wanted to go all the way back home just to retrieve(重新获得) the salad forks. We learned the hard way how to compensate(补偿) for essential items that were left in the closet. Most of the time our ideas wouldn't work, but every once in a while the stars would align just right and something actually succeeded. Here are some of those ideas that kept us young survivalists happy campers. We thought of everything; steaks, potatoes, spices, etc., enough for a couple of well-rounded meals. We forgot the pans.

    Clean water was the hardest part to accomplish. First we tried to filter the water using a sock filled with charcoal. Since we only brought one pair of socks each, the pair on our feet, the idea didn't go over too well. Our second ingenious idea was to carve a bowl in which we could put water to boil and somehow not catch on fire. After we broke two or three of our “survival” knives and our bowls still resembled a tree, we decided that our oak dining set wasn't going to happen. Finally someone recalled it's possible to boil water in a paper cup, and I realize now the guts it took to say that because I know I wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of the looks we gave him. We went though many pieces of paper and a myriad of designs (my buddy Bryon can make one fancy paper swan!) before we finally hit on one that worked. It turned out to look like a small casserole dish. We built it by taking the paper and folding it like we were gift-wrapping half a package. A small lip around the top of the “dish” kept the triangle flaps in place. The heat from the fire put condensation on the outside of the paper to keep it from burning.

   After that small victory we thought cooking the steaks would be a simple task. Our idea was to cook them like marshmallows. After sacrificing(牺牲) a couple of perfectly good steaks to the fire-gods (because the end of our sticks burned off), we realized the error of our ways. Luckily some parts of Missouri have clay for soil and we happened to be in one of those areas. So we took forked branches and made a twig latticework over the Y. All we did was pack the fork with clay, hold it over the fire for a hit, and we had ourselves custom Earthenware.

  The potatoes were even easier after we discovered the power of clay. We packed clay around those 'taters and tossed them to the side of the fire ring. After about 30 to 45 minutes (depends on the size of the potato and the size of the fire), we cracked those puppies open and had ourselves a pretty good meat-and-potatoes meal…that we had to eat with our hands, of course.

  Another camping mishap(灾祸) happened about two years later, and if you think we learned our lesson on being prepared, then you are sadly mistaken. On this incident we forgot an…umm, very important hygiene tissue(卫生纸). And, as much as we would have liked to be “roughing it,” we just happened to schedule our trip the same time as a big poison ivy convention. Once again notebook paper saved our behinds (no pun intended). We found that if we took a couple of pieces, folded them flat and put them between our flattened(平的) hands, we could rub(磨擦) our hands together and it broke down the stiffness of the notebook paper to an almost tissue-like substance. You just had to remember to plan ahead about 5 minutes.

  On one small hunting excursion(远足) as a much older and wiser person, I went with my cousin to northern Missouri. We were so excited to go that we forget all fire-making equipment. (Unfortunately, unprepared ness is genetic.) So we were out in the middle of nowhere, in a cabin, in the middle of November. Our only savior is that we drove. The cigarette lighter was out of the question. My cousin had just bought a new GPS unit so we tossed that easy fire-builder. Our first thought, of course, was to use the gas from the truck. We both decided however, that we looked better with eyebrows, so we canned that idea. (plus, I think we were almost out of fuel). After a couple of minutes we came across an idea. We put jumper cables on the battery, then we quickly and lightly tapped the other ends together to produce sparks over a small pile of twigs and fuzz-sticks. It's important not to hold the two terminals together long because they will weld themselves together. And, if you don't get them apart, your battery will explode. I know this isn't the best way to treat your battery, but if you're in serious need of a fire, then you do what you must to stay warm. The damage to the battery from arcing is minimal and the battery will still work fine.

Questions:  

1.According to the author what they should do to get clean water?  

2.How do they cook potatoes during the camp?

 

 

拓展与应用:

  Any discussion of Shakespeare's life is bound to be loaded with superlatives(最高). In the course of a quarter century, Shakespeare wrote some thirty-eight plays. Taken individually, several of them are among the world's finest written works; taken collectively, they establish Shakespeare as the foremost literary talent of his own Elizabethan Age and, even more impressively, as a genius whose creative achievement has never been surpassed in any age.

  In light of Shakespeare's stature and the passage of nearly four centuries since his death, it is not surprising that hundreds of Shakespeare biographies have been written in all of the world's major languages. Scanning(略读) this panorama(全景), most accounts of the Bard's life (and certainly the majority of modern studies) are contextual(文脉上的) in the sense that they place the figure of Shakespeare against the rich tapestry of his “Age” or “Times” or “Society.” This characteristic approach to Shakespeare biography is actually a matter of necessity, for without such fleshing out into historical, social, and literary settings, the skeletal (骨架的) character of what we know about Shakespeare from primary sources would make for slim and, ironically, boring books. As part of this embellishment process, serious scholars continue to mine for hard facts about the nature of Shakespeare's world. The interpretation of their meaning necessarily varies, often according to the particular school or ideology of the author.

  Whatever the differences of opinion, valid or at least plausible(似是而非的) views about Shakespeare, his character and his personal experience continue to be advanced. Yet even among modern Shakespeare biographies(传记), in addition to outlandish interpretations(奇异的解释) of the available facts, there persists (and grows) a body of traditions about such matters as Shakespeare's marriage, his move to London, the circumstances of his death and the like. The result of all this is that there is now a huge tapestry of descriptive, critical, and analytical work about Shakespeare in existence, much of it reasonable, some of it outlandish, and some of it hogwash.

Questions

1.How does the writer evaluate Shakespeare's works?

2.Why the characteristic approach to Shakespeare biography mentioned in the passage is actually a matter of necessity?

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