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Shelly had prepared carefully for her biology examination so that she could be sure of passing it on her first endeavor. intention attempt purpose desire
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The newspaper did not mention the degree of the damage caused by the fire. range level extent quantity
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Housewives who do not go out to work often feel they are not working to their full ability. capacity strength length possibility
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I catch a cold now and then. always occasionally constantly regularly
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Professor Taylor’s talk has indicated that science has a very strong influence on the everyday life of non-scientists as well as scientists. motivation perspective impression impact
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A peculiarly pointed chin is his most memorable facial characteristic. mark feature trace appearance
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The tomato juice left a brown stain on the front of my jacket. track trace spot point
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In previous times, when fresh meat was inadequate, pigeons were kept by many households as a source of food. in short store in short provision in short reserve in short supply
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Some people would like to do shopping on Sundays since they expect to pick up wonderful articles in the market. batteries bargains baskets barrels
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At the meeting both sides exchanged their views on a wide scope of topics they were interested in. extent number collection range
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She can speak French and German, let alone English. to say nothing of to speak nothing of to talk nothing of to tell nothing of
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A complete change in policy is needed if relations are ever to improve. strict wide ever radical
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Please give my best wishes to your family. notice attention regards cares
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They bought the land in order to build a new office block. with a purpose to with a view to with a goal to with a reason to
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The manager got angry just because his secretary was ten minutes late. lost his mood lost his temper lost his mind lost his passion
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Scotland: A Land of Wisdom
In the 1740s, the famous French philosopher Voltaire said “We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization. “That’s not a bad advertisement for any country when it comes to attracting people to search for a first-class education.
According to the American author Arthur Herman, the Scots invented the modern world itself. He argues that Scottish thinkers and intellectuals worked out many of the most important ideas on which modern life depends—everything from the scientific method to market economics. Their ideas did not just spread among intellectuals, but to those people in business, government and the sciences who actually shaped the Western world.
It all started during the period that historians call the Scottish Enlightenment(启蒙运动), which is usually seen as taking place between the years 1740 and 1800. Before that, philosophy was mainly concerned with religion. For the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, the proper study of humanity was mankind itself.
Their reasoning was practical. For the philosopher David Hume, humanity was the right subject for philosophy because we can examine human behavior and so find real evidence of how people think and feel. And from that we can make judgments about the societies we live in and make concrete suggestions about how they can be improved, for universal benefit.
Hume’s enquiry into the nature of knowledge laid the foundations for the scientific method— the pursuit of truth through experiment. His friend and fellow resident of Edinburgh, Adam Smith, famously applied the study of mankind to the ways in which mankind does business. Trade, he argued, was a form of information. In pursuing our own interests through trading in markets, we all come to benefit each other.
Smith’s idea has dominated modern views of economics. It also has wide applications. He was one of the philosophers to point out that nations can become rich, free and powerful through peace, trade and invention.
Although the Scottish Enlightenment ended a long time ago, the ideas which evolved at that time still underpin(构成......的基础)our theories of human exchange and enquiry. It also exists in Scotland itself in an educational tradition that combines academic excellence with orientation（方向）
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A a lot of money
B British people
C morning
D local people
E national issues
F local issues
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Local Newspapers in Britain
1 Britain has a large circulation(发行量)of the national newspapers. The Daily Mirror and The Daily Express both sell about 4 million copies each day. On average, every family will buy one newspaper in the morning, and take two or three on Sundays.
2 Local newspapers are just as popular as the national ones in Britain. Local papers have a weekly circulation of 13 million. Nearly every town and country area has its own paper, and almost every local paper is financially holding its own. Many local newspapers are earning good profits.
3 Local newspapers have their special characteristics. They mainly satisfy interest in local e-vents—births, weddings, deaths, council meetings, and sports. Editors often rely on a small staff of people who know the district well. Clubs and churches in the neighborhood regularly supply these papers with much local news. Local news does not get out of date as quickly as national news. If there is no room for it in this week’s edition, a news item can be held over until the following week.
4 The editor of a local newspaper never forgets that the success of any newspaper depends on advertising. For this reason, he is keen to keep the good will of local businessmen. If the newspaper sells well with carefully chosen news items to attract local readers, the businessmen will be grateful to the paper for the opportunity of keeping their products in the public eye.
5 Local newspapers seldom comment on problems of national importance, and editors rarely take sides on political questions. But they can often provide service to the community in expressing public feeling on local issues. A newspaper can sometimes persuade the council to take action to improve transport, provide better shopping facilities, and preserve local monuments and places of interest.
A Keeping Good Relations with Local Businessmen
B Service Provided by Local Newspapers
C Large Circulation of the National Newspapers
D Special Features of Local Newspapers
E Power of Local Newspapers
F Popularity of Local Newspapers
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The first navigational lights in the New World were probably lighthouses hung at harbor entrances. The first lighthouse was put up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by “ light dues“ levied(征收)on ships, the original beacon was blown up in 1776. Until then there were only a dozen or so true lighthouses in the colonies. Litde over a century later, there were 700 lighthouses.
The first eight lighthouses erected on the West Coast in the 1850s featured the same basic New England design: a Cape Cod dwelling with the tower rising from the center or standing close by. In New England and elsewhere, though, lighthouses reflected a variety of architectural styles.
Since most stations in the Northeast were set up on rocky eminences(高处), enormous towers were not the rule. Some were made of stone and brick, others of wood or metal. Some stood on pilings or stilts; some were fastened to rock with iron rods. Farther south, from Maryland through the Florida Keys, the coast was low and sandy. It was often necessary to build tall towers there— massive structures like the majestic lighthouse in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, which was lit in 1870. 190 feet high, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country.
Not withstanding differences in construction appearance, most lighthouses in America shared several features: a light, living quarters, and sometimes a bell(or, later, a foghorn). They also had something else in common: a keeper and usually the keeper’s family. The keeper’s essential task was trimming the lantern wick(灯芯)in order to maintain a steady, bright flame. The earliest keepers came from every walk of life, they were seamen, farmers, mechanics, rough mill hands and appointments were often handed out by local customs commissioners as political plums. After the administration of lighthouse was taken over in 1852 by the United States Lighthouse Board, and agency of the Treasury Department, the keeper corps gradually became highly professional.
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Electronic Mail
During the past few years, scientists all over the world have suddenly found themselves productively engaged in task they once spent their lives avoiding—writing, any kind of writing, but particularly letter writing. Encouraged by electronic mail’s surprisingly high speed, convenience and economy, people who never before touched the stuff are regularly, skillfully, even cheerfully tapping out a great deal of correspondence.
Electronic networks, woven into the fabric of scientific communication these days, are the route to colleagues in distant countries, shared data, bulletin boards and electronic journals. Anyone with a personal computer, a modern and the software to link computers over telephone lines can sign on. An estimated five million scientists have done so with more joining every day, most of them communicating through a bundle of interconnected domestic and foreign routes known collectively as the Internet, or net.
E-mail is starting to edge out the fax, the telephone, overnight mail, and of course, land mail. It shrinks time and distance between scientific collaborators, in part because it is conveniently asynchronous(异步的)(Writer can type while their colleagues across time zones sleep; their message will be waiting.). If it is not yet speeding discoveries, it is certainly accelerating communication.
Jeremy Bernstein, the physicist and science writer, once called E-mail the physicist’s umbilical cord(脐带). Later other people, too, have been discovering its connective virtues. Physicists are using it; college students are using it; everybody is using it; and as a sign that it has come of age, the New Yorker has celebrated its liberating presence with a cartoon—an appreciative dog seated at a keyboard, saying happily, “ On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. “
