[文科学习] 初中家长新4学习记录贴--48课，目标10周完成！

adverse circumstances
deprive
enlightened
punctuated

preacher
...........

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preacher
applied psychology
were fashioned after
in this respect
equal start
primitive culture
...is blinding to all
without a script
deem it necessary
ever-present
savannahs
juvenile delinquency


andyandjasmine于2014-8-7 19:54补充以下内容：
Lesson 34 Adolescence

What do adolescence respect in parents?


andyandjasmine于2014-8-7 19:54补充以下内容：
Lesson 34 Adolescence

What do adolescence respect in parents?

Lesson 34 Adolescence

What do adolescence respect in parents?

such a loss of dignity and descent
slur
spiteful
adolescence
adolescent
brought this on themselves

disillusionment
adequate
inevitable
stand up to
infallibility
resenting
resisting
refusal
too cowed to
unreasoning authoritarian

Lesson 35 Space odyssey

When will it be possible for us to think seriously about colonising Mars?

terrestrial cousins

decisively

savage sandstorms

chasms

Lesson 36 The cost of government

What is the most importent factor, both in government or business, for keeping running costs low?

Punching card

incur
analogous be analogous with
unduly
be in the interest of ...

Lesson 37 The process of ageing

What is one of the most unpleasant discoveries we make about ourselves as we get older?

At the age of twelve years,  the human body is at its most vigorous. It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence; but at this age the likelihood of death is least. Earlier, we were infants and younge children, and consequently more vulnerable; later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigour and resistance which, though imperceptible at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer, however well we look after ourselves, and how ever well society, and our doctors, look after us. This decline in vigour with the passing of time is call ageing. It is  one of the most unpleasent discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars, accidents and diseases we shall eventually 'die of old age', and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person, so that there are heavy odds in favour of our dying between the ages of sixty-five to eighty. Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer--on into a minth or tenth decade. But the chances are against it, and there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and robust we are.

at its most vigorous
likelihood
vulnerable
imperceptible
heavy odds
vertual limit
robust

Normal people tend to forget this process unless and untill they are reminded of it. We are so familiar with the fact that man ages, that people have for years assumed that the process of losing vigour  with time, of becoming more likely to die the older we get , was something self-evident, like the cooling of a hot kettle or the wearing-out of a pair of shoes. They have also assumed that all animals, and probably other organisms such as trees, or even the universe itself, must in the nature of things ' wear out'. Most animals we commonly observe do in fact age as we do, if given the chance to live long enough; and mechanical systems like a wound watch, or the sun, do in fact run out of energy in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics(whether the whole universe does so is a moot point at present). But these are not analogous to what happens when man ages. A run-down watch is still a watch and can be rewound. And old watch, by contrast, becomes so worn and unreliable that it eventually is not worth mending. But a watch could never repair itself--it does not consist of living parts, only of metal, which wears away by friction. We could, at one time, repair ourselves--well enough, at least, to overcome all but the most instanly fatal illnesses and accidents. Between twelve and eight years we gradually lose this power; and illness which at twelve weould knock us over, at eight can knock us out , and into our grave. If we could stay as vigorous as we are at twelve, it would take about 700 years for half of us to die, and another 700 for the survivors to be reduced by half again.

something self-evident
organisms
wound watch
thermodynamics
moot point
analogous
run-down watch
rewound
friction


andyandjasmine于2014-8-18 09:26补充以下内容：
Lesson 38 Water and the traveller

What does this text describe?

Lesson 38 Water and the traveller

What does thsi text describe?

Contamination of wather supplies is usually due to poor sanitaion close to water sources, sewage disposal into the sources themselves, leakage of sevage into distribution system or contamination with industrial or farm waste. Even if a piped water supply is safe at its source, it is not always safe by the time it reaches the tap. Intermittent tap-water should be regarded as particularly suspect.

Travellers on short trips to areas with water supplies of uncertain quality should avoid drinking tap-water. Or untreated water from any other source. It is best to keep hot drinks, bottled or canned drinks of well-known brand names--international standards of water treatment are usually followed at bottling plants. Carbonated drinks are acidic, and slightly safter. Make sure that all bottles are opened in your presence, and that their rims are clean and dry.

Boiling is always a good way of treating water. Some hotels supply boiled water on request and this can be used for drinking, or for brushing teeth. Portable elements that can boild small quantities of water are useful when the right voltage of electricity is available. Refuse politely and cold drink from an unknown source.

Ice is only as safe as the water from which it is made, and should not be put in drinks unless it is known to be safe. Drinks can be cooled by placing them on ice rather than adding ice to them.

Alcohol may be a medical disinfectant, but should not be relied upon to sterilize water. Ethanol is more effective at a concertration of 50-70 per cent; below 20 per cent, its bactericidal action is negligible. Spirits labelled 95 proof contain only about 47 per cent alcohol. Beware of methylated alcohol, which is very poisions, and should never be added to drinking water.

If no other safe water supply can be obtained, tap water this is too hot to touch can be left to cool and is generally safe to drink. Those planning a trip to remote areas, or intending to live in countries where drinking water is not readily available, should know about the variouse possible methods for making water safe.

Lesson 38 Water and traveller

contamination
sanitation
sewage
leakage
intermittent
carbonated
acidic
alcohol
disinfectant
sterilize
ethanol
bactericidal
negligible
methylated

Lesson 39 What every writer wants

How do professional writers ignore what they were taguth at school about writing?

I have known very few writers, but those I have known, and whom I respect, confess at once that they have little idea where they are going when they first set pen to paper. They have a character, perhaps two; they are in that condition of eager discomfort which passes for inspiration; all admit radical changes of destination once the joury begun; one, to my certain knowledge. spent nine months on a novel about Kashmir, then reset the whole thing in the Scottish Highlands.

I never heard of anyone making a "skeleton", as we were taught at school. In the breaking and remaking, in the timing, interweaving, beginning afresh, the writher comes to discern things in his material which were not consciously in his mind when he began. This organic process, often leading to moments of extraordinary sef-discovery, is of an indescriable fascinaiton. A blurred image appears; he adds a brushstroke and another, and it is gone; but something was there, and he will not rest till he has captured it. Sometimes the yeast within a writer outlives a book he has written. I have heard of writers who read nothing but their own book; like adolescents they stand before the mirror, and still cannot fathom the exact outline of the vision before them. For the same reason, talk interminably about their own books, winkling out hidden meanings, super-imposing new ones, begging response from those around them. Of cause a writer doing this is misunderstood; he might as well try to explain a crime or a love affair. He is also, incidentally , an unforgivable bore.

This temptation to cover the distance between himself and his reader, to study his image in the sight of those who do not know him, can be his undoing; he has begun to write to please.

A young English writer made the pertinent observation a year or two back that the talent goes into the first draft, and the art into the drafts that follow. For this reason also the writer, like any other artist, hase no resting place, no crowd or moement in which he may take comfort, no judgement from outside which can replace the judgement from within. A writer makes order out of the anarchy of his heart; he submits himself to a more ruthless discipline than any critic dreamed of, and when he flirts with fame, he is taking time off from living with himself, from the search for what his world contains at its inmost point.

eager discomfort
radical changes
discern
blurred image
brushstroke
yeast
adolescents
fathom
interminably
winkling
super-imposing
pertinent
anarchy
ruthless
flirts with fame
inmost point

confess
inspiration
interweave
afresh
discern
indescribable
blur
yeast
fathon
interminably
winkle
incidentally