Book4背诵段落

3 Why is it that several students in a class will fall out of their chairs laughing after I tell a joke while the rest of the students look as if I?ve just read the weather report?3 Obviously some people are more sensitive to humor than others. And, we recognize that some people tell jokes very well while others struggle to say something funny. We?ve all heard people say, “I like jokes, but I can?t tell one well, and I can never remember them.” Some people have a better sense of humor than others just as some people have more musical talent, mathematical talent, etc. than others. A truly funny person has a joke for every occasion, and when one is told, that triggers an entire string of jokes from that person?s memory bank.

4 A humorless person is not likely to be the most popular person in a group. It is reasonable to say that the truly humorous individual is not only well liked, but is often the focus of attention in any gathering.

11 PUNS are even more subtle forms of word play. They use the technique of similar sounding words or alternative meanings of the same word. Puns are thought by some critics to be the lowest form of humor, but I disagree with this. Puns require more subtle and sophisticated language skills than most humor forms, but even the very young can use them in their simpler forms. For example, the “riddle” or trick question often uses a pun in the setup, the story line, or, more often, the punch line. Puns are the first type of humor I learned, and at about 5 years of age I remember hearing the following riddle. One person asks, “What is black and white and red all over?” The other person usually cannot answer the riddle, so says, “I give up. What is the answer?” The riddler replies, “A newspaper.” This is the obvious answer if o ne knows that “red” is pronounced the same as “read” in English, but the meanings are clearly different.

13Some professional humorists think too much of today?s humor is not very intelligent or sophisticated. They dislike the suggestive or vulgar language used too frequently, and they feel that most humorists are not very creative. It is true that some of today?s humor is rather shocking, but I don?t think humor is to be blamed for that. Humor is alive and well, and it will persist simply because there are funny things happening every day.

U3

1 Over the past few decades, it has been proven innumerable times that the various types of behavior, emotions, and interests that constitute being masculine and feminine are patterned by both heredity and culture. In the process of growing up, each child learns hundreds of culturally patterned details of behavior that become incorporated into its gender identity. Some of this learning takes place directly.

5 These lessons carry over from the home to the classroom, where girls are generally observed to be more dependent on the teacher, more concerned with the form and neatness of their work than with its content, and more anxious about being “right” in their answers than in being intellectually independent, analytical, or original.10 Thus, through the educational process that occupies most of the child?s waking hours, society reinforces its established values and turns out each sex in its traditional and expected mold.

5 Creativity is not something one is just born with, nor is it necessarily a characteristic of high intelligence. Just because a person is highly intelligent does not mean that he uses it creatively. Creativity is the matter of using the resources one has to produce original ideas that are good for something.

6 Unfortunately, schools have not tended to promote creativity. With strong emphasis on test scores and the development of reading, writing and mathematical skills, many educators sacrifice creativity for correct answers. The result is that children can give back information but can?t recognize ways to apply it to new situations. They may know their multiplication tables, for example, but they are unable to apply them to story problems 8 There are things that parents can do at home to encourage creativity. They can involve children in decision making if the problem is appropriate, asking the child for suggestions. Parents can help their children to understand the consequences of various decisions. Parents should also encourage their children to talk out loud about things they are doing. Thinking and language skills are closely related. Talking out loud improves language skills and thinking skills.

U7There?s no doubt that Neusner should have taken a closer look at what col lege life is really like before formulating such a strong opinion about it. He is completely ignoring all the pressures and hard times students go through to make it at college. It is not the way he describes it at all.

To me, living in a crowded triple, having a one-day reading period before finals, tons of readings, papers, and midterms due the same week are not exactly my idea of “…easy, free, forgiving, attentive, comfortable, interesting, unchallenging fun?”

U8

2How a person thinks about time can kill him, according to Dossey, a pioneer in the emerging science of chronobiology, the study of how time interacts with life. One of the most common ills in our society, he says, is “time sickness”, a sense of time pressure and hurry that causes anxiety and tension. These symptoms can contribute to heart disease and strokes, two of our most frequent causes of death.

8Because the time our society keeps has been taught to us since birth, we think of it as something that everyone everywhere must somehow share. But cultures differ in how they perceive time. In North America and the industrialized countries of northern Europe, life is tightly scheduled. To keep someone waiting is frowned upon. But in southern Europe and in the Hispanic countries of Latin America, people are given priority over schedules—and in making appointments the starting time is more flexible.

U9

2Today, change comes so fast that working people can become obsolete because their occupations vanish in the middle of their lives.3 Knowledge, and thus the rate of change, increases geometrically. Every idea gives birth to a dozen new ones, and each of them has a dozen children4. The people of the pre-World War I generation had hardly assimilated the inventions of that era before they were attacked by a new batch of even more

sophisticated inventions.5 The Atomic Age dawned in 1945, August 6 to be exact6, and then, before we could catch our breath, the Space Age arrived.

11 Despite all the problems of the modern world, however, most people would not choose to live in any of the less scientific ages that have preceded ours. If—and this is a big if14 —we don?t destroy ourselves in war, the future can only be better. Each year will bring a more bewildering array of scientific advances: diseases cured, space conquered, transportation and communication revolutionised, agriculture and industry completely transformed, etc. To some, the future sounds exciting; to others, frightening. But one thing is sure—it won?t be boring.