(完整版)英语选修7课文内容.doc

1、1.Unit1 MARTYS STORY Hi, my name is Marty Fielding and I guess you could say that I am one in a million.In other words, there are not many people like me. You see, I have a muscle disease which makes me very weak, so I cant run or climb stairs as quickly as other people. In addition, sometimes I am

2、very clumsy and drop things or bump into furniture. Unfortunately, the doctors dont know how to make me better, but I am very outgoing and have learned to adapt to my disability. My motto is: live one day at a time. Until I was ten years old I was the same as everyone else. I used to climb trees, sw

3、im and play football. In fact, I used to dream about playing professional football and possibly representing my country in the World Cup. Then I started to get weaker and weaker, until I could only enjoy football from a bench at the stadium. In the end I went into hospital for medical tests. I staye

4、d there for nearly three months. I think I had at least a billion tests, including one in which they cut out a piece of muscle from my leg and looked at it under a microscope. , Even after all that, no one could give my disease a name and it is difficult to know what the future holds. One problem is

5、 that I dont look any different from other people. So sometimes some children in my primary school would laugh, when I got out of breath after running a short way or had to stop and rest halfway up the stairs. Sometimes, too, I was too weak to go to school so my education suffered. Every time I retu

6、rned after an absence, I felt stupid because I was behind the others. My life is a lot easier at high school because my fellow students have accepted me. The few who cannot see the real person inside my body do not make me annoyed, and I just ignore them. All in all I have a good life. I am happy to

7、 have found many things I can do, like writing and computer programming. My ambition is to work for a firm that develops computer software when I grow up. Last year I invented a computer football game and a big company has decided to buy it from me. I have a very busy life with no time to sit around

8、 feeling sorry for myself. As well as going to the movies and football matches with my friends, I spend a lot of time with my pets. I have two rabbits, a parrot, a tank full of fish and a tortoise. To look after my pets properly takes a lot of time but I find it worthwhile. I also have to do a lot o

9、f work, especially if I have been away for a while. In many ways my disability has helped me grow stronger psychologically and become more independent. I have to work hard to live a normal life but it has been worth it. If I had a chance to say one thing to healthy children, it would be this: having

10、 a disability does not mean your life is not satisfying. So dont feel sorry for the disabled or make fun of them, and dont ignore them either. Just accept them for who they are, and give them encouragement to live as rich and full a life as you do. Thank you for reading my story. Marty2.Unit 1 A LET

11、TER TO AN ARCHITECTDear Ms Sanders, I read in the newspaper today that you are to be the architect for the new Bankstown cinema. I hope you will not mind me writing to ask if you have thought about the needs of disabled customers. In particular I wonder if you have considered the following things: 1

12、 Adequate access for wheelchairs. It would be handy to have lifts to all parts of the cinema. The buttons in the lifts should be easy for a person in a wheelchair to reach, and the doors be wide enough to enter. In some cinemas, the lifts are at the back of the cinema in cold, unattractive places. A

13、s disabled people have to use the lifts, this makes them feel they are not as important as other customers. 2 Earphones for people who have trouble hearing. It would help to fit sets of earphones to all seats, not just to some of them. This would allow hearing-impaired customers to enjoy the company

14、 of their hearing friends rather than having to sit in a special area. 3 Raised seating. People who are short cannot always see the screen. So Id like to suggest that the seats at the back be placed higher than those at the front so that everyone can see the screen easily. Perhaps there could be a s

15、pace at the end of each row for people in wheelchairs to sit next to their friends. 4 Toilets. For disabled customers it would be more convenient to place the toilets near the entrance to the cinema. It can be difficult if the only disabled toilet is in the basement a long way from where the film is

16、 showing. And if the doors could be opened outwards, disabled customers would be very happy. 5 Car parking. Of course, there are usually spaces specially reserved for disabled and elderly drivers.If they are close to the cinema entrance and/or exit, it is easier for disabled people to get to film in

17、 comfort. Thank you for reading my letter. I hope my suggestions will meet with your approval. Disabled people should have the same opportunities as able-bodied people to enjoy the cinema and to do so with dignity. I am sure many people will praise your cinema if you design it with good access for d

18、isabled people. It will also make the cinema owners happy if more people go as they will make higher profits! Yours sincerely,Alice Major 3.Unit2 SATISFACTION GURANTEEDLarry Belmont worked for a company that made robots. Recently it had begun experimenting with a household robot. It was going to be

19、tested out by Larrys wife, Claire.Claire didnt want the robot in her house, especially as her husband would be absent for three weeks, but Larry persuaded her that the robot wouldnt harm her or allow her to be harmed. It would be a bonus. However, when she first saw the robot, she felt alarmed. His

20、name was Tony and he seemed more like a human than a machine. He was tall and handsome with smooth hair and a deep voice although his facial expression never changed.On the second morning Tony, wearing an apron, brought her breakfast and then asked her whether she needed help dressing. She felt emba

21、rrassed and quickly told him to go. It was disturbing and frightening that he looked so human. One day, Claire mentioned that she didnt think she was clever. Tony said that she must feel very unhappy to say that. Claire thought it was ridiculous to be offered sympathy by a robot. But she began to tr

22、ust him. She told him how she was overweight and this made her feel unhappy. Also she felt her home wasnt elegant enough for someone like Larry who wanted to improve his social position. She wasnt like Gladys Claffern, one of the richest and most powerful women around. As a favour Tony promised to h

23、elp Claire make herself smarter and her home more elegant. So Claire borrowed a pile of books from the library for him to read, or rather, scan. She looked at his fingers with wonder as they turned each page and suddenly reached for his hand. She was amazed by his fingernails and the softness and wa

24、rmth of his skin. How absurd, she thought. He was just a machine. Tony gave Claire a new haircut and changed the makeup she wore. As he was not allowed to accompany her to the shops, he wrote out a list of items for her.Claire went into the city and bought curtains, cushions, a carpet and bedding. T

25、hen she went into a jewellery shop to buy a necklace. When the clerk at the counter was rude to her, she rang Tony up and told the clerk to speak to him. The clerk immediately changed his attitude. Claire thanked Tony, telling him that he was a dear.As she turned around, there stood Gladys Claffern.

26、 How awful to be discovered by her, Claire thought. By the amused and surprised look on her face, Claire knew that Gladys thought she was having an affair. After all, she knew Claires husbands name was Larry, not Tony. When Claire got home, she wept with anger in her armchair. Gladys was everything

27、Claire wanted to be. You can be like her, Tony told her and suggested that she invite Gladys and her friends to the house the night before he was to leave and Larry was to return. By that time, Tony expected the house to be completely transformed. Tony worked steadily on the improvements. Claire tri

28、ed to help once but was too clumsy. She fell off a ladder and even though Tony was in the next room, he managed to catch her in time. He held her firmly in his arms and she felt the warmth of his body. She screamed, pushed him away and ran to her room for the rest of the day. The night of the party

29、arrived. The clock struck eight. The guests would be arriving soon and Claire told Tony to go into another room. At that moment, Tony folded his arms around her, bending his face close to hers. She cried out Tony and then heard him declare that he didnt want to leave her the next day and that he fel

30、t more than just the desire to please her. Then the front door bell rang. Tony freed her and disappeared from sight. It was then that Claire realized that Tony had opened the curtains of the front window. Her guests had seen everything ! The women were impressed by Claire, the house and the deliciou

31、s cuisine. Just before they left, Claire heard Gladys whispering to another woman that she had never seen anyone so handsome as Tony. What a sweet victory to be envied by those women! She might not be as beautiful as them, but none of them had such a handsome lover. Then she remembered -Tony was jus

32、t a machine. She shouted Leave me alone and ran to her bed. She cried all night. The next morning a car drove up and took Tony away. The company was very pleased with Tonys report on his three weeks with Claire.Tony had protected a human being from harm.He had prevented Claire from harming herself t

33、hrough her own sense of failure.He had opened the curtains that night so that the other women would see him and Claire, knowing that there was no risk to Claires marriage.But even though Tony had been so clever, he would have to be rebuilt -you cannot have women failing in love with machines.4.Unit2

34、 A BIOGRAPHY OF ISAAC ASIMOV Isaac Asimov was an American scientist and writer who wrote around 480 books that included mystery stories, science and history books, and even books about the Holy Bible and Shakespeare. 480 But he is best known for his science fiction stories. Asimov had both an extrao

35、rdinary imagination that gave him the ability to explore future worlds and an amazing mind with which he searched for explanations of everything, in the present and the past. Asimovs life began in Russia, where he was born on 2 January, 1920. 192012 It ended in New York on 6 April, 1992, when he die

36、d as a result of an HIV infection that he had got from a blood transfusion nine years earlier.199246 When Asimov was three, he moved with his parents and his one-year-old sister to New York City. There his parents bought a candy store which they ran for the next 40 or so years. 40 At the age of nine

37、, when his mother was pregnant with her third child, Asimov started working part-time in the store. He helped out through his school and university years until 1942, a year after he had gained a masters degree in chemistry. 1942 In 1942 he joined the staff of the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a junior c

38、hemist and worked there for three years. 1942 In 1948 he got his PhD in chemistry. 1948 The next year he became a biochemistry teacher at Boston University School of Medicine. In 1958 he gave up teaching to become a full-time writer. 1958 It was when Asimov was eleven years old that his talent for w

39、riting became obvious. 11 He had told a friend two chapters of a story he had written. The friend thought he was retelling a story from a book. This really surprised Asimov and from that moment, he started to take himself seriously as a writer. Asimov began having stories published in science fictio

40、n magazines in 1939. 19391950 In 1950 he published his first novel and in 1953 his first science book. 1953 Throughout his life, Asimov received many awards, both for his science fiction books and his science books. Among his most famous works of science fiction, one for which he won an award was th

41、e Foundation trilogy (1951-1953), three novels about the death and rebirth of a great empire in a galaxy of the future. 1951-1953 It was loosely based on the fall of the Roman Empire but was about the future. These books are famous because Asimov invented a theoretical framework which was designed t

42、o show how ideas and thinking may develop in the future. He is also well known for his collection of short stories, I, Robot (1950), in which he developed a set of three laws for robots. 1950) For example, the first law states that a robot must not injure human beings or allow them to be injured. So

43、me of his ideas about robots later influenced other writers and even scientists researching into artificial intelligence. Asimov was married twice. He married his first wife in 1942 and had a son and a daughter. 1942Their marriage lasted 31 years. 31 Soon after his divorce in 1973, Asimov married ag

44、ain but he had no children with his second wife. 19735.Unit 3 OLD TOM THE KILLER WHALE I was 16 when I began work in June 1902 at the whaling station. 1902616 I had heard of the killers that every year helped whalers catch huge whales. I thought, at the time, that this was just a story but then I wi

45、tnessed it with my own eyes many times. On the afternoon I arrived at the station, as I was I sorting out my accommodation, I heard a loud noise coming from the bay. We ran down to the shore in time to see an enormous animal opposite us throwing itself out of the water and then crashing down again.

46、It was black and white and fish-shaped. But I knew it wasnt a fish. Thats Old Tom, the killer, one of the whalers, George, called out to me. Hes telling us theres a whale out there for us. Another whaler yelled out, Rush-oo .rush-oo. This was the call that announced there was about to be a whale hun

47、t. Come on, Clancy. To the boat, George said as he ran ahead of me. I had already heard that George didnt like being kept waiting, so even though I didnt have the right clothes on, I raced after him. Without pausing we jumped into the boat with the other whalers and headed out into the bay. I looked

48、 down into the water and could see Old Tom swimming by the boat, showing us the way. A few minutes later, there was no Tom, so George started beating the water with his oar and there was Tom, circling back to the boat, leading us to the hunt again. Using a telescope we could see that something was happening. As we drew closer, I could see a whale being attacked by a pack of about six other killers. Whatre they doing? I asked George. Well, its teamwork - the killers over there are throwing themselves on top of the whales blow-hole to stop it breathing. And tho