英语二

目录 TOC \o "1-1" \h \z \u Unit 1 Text A How Difficult Is English? 2 Unit 1 Text B Learning a Language 3 Unit 2 Text A Caught Between Two Cultures 5 Unit 2 Text B Culture Shock – The Initial Stresses 6 Unit 3 Text A Books 8 Unit 3 Text B The History of Books 9 Unit 4 Text A Don’t Let Anger Get the best of you 10 Unit 4 Text B The Art of Listening 12 Unit 5 Text A The Most Important Day in my Life 13 Unit 5 Text B He Led a Useful Life 15 Unit 6 Text A The British Educational System 16 Unit 6 Text B Higher Education in the United States 17 Unit 7 Text A Christmas 19 Unit 7 Text B Thanksgiving Day 21 Unit8 Text A How to Give a Good Speech 22 Unit 8 Text B The Mystery of Speaking Effectively 23 Unit 9 text A The Web Lifestyle 25 Unit 9 Text B What Are Computers 26 Unit 10 Text A Working Women - East and West 27 Unit 10 Text B Women's Liberation 29 Unit 11 Text A My father’s shadow 31 Unit 11 Text B The Perfect Picture 32 Unit 12 Text A Importance 33 Unit 12 Text B The Three Generations of Time Management 35 Unit 13 Text A Live and Learn 37 Unit 13 Text B Save Money for College on My Own 38 Unit 14 Text A Man Will Prevail 40 Unit 14 Text B The New Frontier John Kennedy July 15, 1960 41 Unit 15 Text A Four Minutes That Get You Hired 42 Unit 15 Text B Bring your Heart to Work 44 Unit 1 Text A How Difficult Is English? Like the national push for Asian literacy in Australia ,there has been foreign languages fervor in China with English on top of the list .English is not only taught at schools ,colleges and universities, but also at evening classes ,on radio and TV .Parents hire private tutors for their school children; adult English learners would sacrifice the weekend at an English corner in a public park practicing their spoken English with people of the same interest and determination .Is English such a difficult language that it really demands people to invest a large amount of time and energy before it is mastered? The answer, if I am asked to offer, Is undoubtedly, yes. From my personal experience, I think learning English means far more than learning its pronunciation, its grammatical rules, its words, etc. It involves learning everything about the countries where it is used and the people who use it. Without such a complete understanding of the language, the English a foreigner speaks will inevitably sound strange or even unintelligible though there is not anything wrong with his pronunciation, sentence structure and the words he uses. The social customs and habits of the English-speaking people contribute a lot to the difficulty a foreigner has in learning it, Take the Chinese English learners for example. “Hello” and “Good morning” may sound a little bit simple to Chinese people. It is totally beyond the understanding of a Chinese English learner that native English speakers would be annoyed when they’re addressed “Where are you going?” which is a commonly used addressing among the Chinese. Is there anything wrong with the English sentence structure? Of course not. It takes quite some time for a Chinese English learner to understand the western concept of privacy being violated in this address. By the same token, ‘Have you eaten?” (Which is another addressing term the Chinese people usually use) will sound to native English speakers that the Chinese are so hospitable that they invite people to meals off-handedly. Meanwhile, the Chinese would be shocked to hear, “Oh, It’s very nice of you. When?”, if the addressee happens to have a craving for Chinese cooking and has not had his dinner yet? “We can say we are going to have chicken for dinner. Why can’t we say pig, bull or sheep for dinner instead of pork, beef or mutton?” Chinese English learners may raise such questions. Figuring out the reasons for the peculiar English vocabulary is no easy task for Chinese English learners. But the problem is that memorizing English words mechanically would be devastating and inefficient if they did not know what had happened in British history. Thus learning English (and other languages as well) involves learning the history of the countries where it is spoken. A task of this kind is more difficult for Chinese English learners than for people who speak a western language other than English because Chinese has noting in common whit the alphabetic English and China had little contact with the Western world in modern history. Consequently, the background knowledge of English fascinates large numbers of interested and determined English learners in China but at the same time disheartens quite a few. The Western and Oriental values are found to be in confrontation in learning English. Native English speakers may complain about Chinese confusion when using “he” and “she”, for the two words sound the same, though, different in written forms in Chinese. As a result, some native English speakers conclude that the Chinese are unable to tell the difference between the two sexes. But native English speakers are more gender blind than the Chinese when they mention their cousins. Then confusion caused by the confrontation of Western and Chinese values, to a certain extent, affects the Chinese English learner’s comprehension of what he/she reads and hears. Only by developing an understanding and tolerance of different cultural values can a Chinese English learner reach the goal of communicating with native English speakers. A Chinese English learner could not have a good command of English unless he overcomes the cultural barriers (not all, of course!) in learning English. Many Chinese translate what they think about in Chinese into English when they tall or write. This kind of English inevitably affects the fluency and flow of speech, the amount of information conveyed, and, above all, the quality of communication. The above is, not wholly, how difficult English is. Some native speakers might have said, “You foreigners don’t use good English!” at the time a foreigner fails to understand what he is saying, “Why should I?” I would protest, though. Still, I have to keep asking myself: Is it possible for a foreigner to command English? Unit 1 Text B Learning a Language Most students would like to know how to learn a language more easily. Most linguists and language teachers would also like to know this. Linguists are working on this problem in two ways. First, they are trying to understand how children learn to speak and understand their native language. They are also trying to learn how people learn a second language. Linguists are you not sure how children learn to speak. Some linguists think that children are born with an ability to learn and use a language. This does not mean that they come into the world knowing their native language. It means that, along with many other things, they are born with the ability to learn their native language. With just a little exposure to the language, and a little help from their parents, they are able to learn to speak. Another group of linguists does not think this is correct. This second group of linguist thinks that children learn to use a language from their parents. They believe that parents teach their children to produce sounds and words in their language. When children know some words, their parents will begin to teach them to say sentences. These linguists do not think that parents teach their children in the same way that adults are taught a second language. Instead, parents probably teach their children by talking to them and correcting their use of language. These linguists feel that children learn their language mainly from the environment. In this case, the environment is their family and their home. As you see, then first group of linguists disagrees. There are some other theories about how children learn a language. Many people are studying the process of language learning by children. This work is being done in many countries. Linguists are not the only people who are interested in this process. Many psychologists, doctors, and parents are also interested. People who teach foreign language are interested, too. Foreign language teachers are interested in how children learn to speak their native language for a very important reason. If they knew how children learn their native language, perhaps they would have an easy way to teach adults, as well as children, a second language. This is a very interesting idea. Some foreign language teachers believe that adults learn a second language the same way children learn their native language. These teachers try to make their students’ learning similar to that of children. These teachers speak only the foreign language in the classroom. They will not talk to students in the native language. They try to expose them to as much of the spoken foreign language as possible. They do not teach them any rules for using the language. Most parents don’t teach their children their children rules for language usage, either. They simply tell them how to say something correctly. Foreign language teachers using this spoken language method do the same thing. For some students, this method is successful. They learn to speak quickly and easily. They seem to enjoy using the language, and they do not pay much attention to whether they use exactly the right rules for what they say. Some students, however, cannot learn a language this way. Linguists are trying to find another way to teach them a language. A second method, the rule-learning method, sometimes works better with these students. Some linguists believe that learning a foreign language is different from learning to speak one’s native language. They feel that students must learn the rules for using the language by memorizing them and must practice saying thing in the language and using the rules correctly. These linguists try to teach students the rules of the language they want to learn. Then they give them many sentences in the language to say over and over again. The students are encouraged to make up new sentences, using the rules that they have learned and the words that they know. Some students are very successful with this second, rule-learning method. They learn the language quite quickly and can use it well. They know the rules for using the language, and can speak the language and understand it, too. For many students, this is the best way to learn a foreign language. For some student, both of these methods may work. Sometimes teachers use a combination of these methods in class, hoping that everyone will be able to learn the language with one method or the other. Some people can go to a country and “pick up” the language simply from hearing it and trying to communicate in it. These people are rare. Most people try to learn a language by taking classes and studying it in some way. Most teachers will try different ways to help students learn a language quickly and easily. Linguists and psychologists are trying to understand how people learn and use a language. Perhaps language learning will be easier when they have a clear understanding of how people learn and use a language. Unit 2 Text A Caught Between Two Cultures I was born and raised in Hong Kong. For the past six years I’ve been living in the United States. I work as a salesgirl in a large department store. Right now I’m going through a difficult period of my life which is hard for me to talk about. A few months ago I went to Hong Kong for a visit. It was the first time I’d gone back there since coming to the United States. I was eager to see my parents, my brothers and sisters, and my friends. I really got a shock when I arrived. Hong Kong was not the same city that I left six years ago. Things had changed so much that I didn’t recognize parts of it. My elementary school was gone. The houses on the street where I used to live had been torn down and replaced by office buildings. The shock from the physical changes in the city, however, was nothing compared to the confusion and hurt I soon began to feel in my parents’ home. My family greeted me warmly when I arrived. While my mother was busy preparing a special dinner in my honor, the rest of the family eagerly asked me questions about my life in the United States. I felt happy that day and for a couple of days after, but then I began to feel that something was wrong. I noticed that my family, especially my mother, would sometimes glance at me in strange way when I (was speaking). They gradually become less warm and friendly toward me, and I became uncomfortable and confused as to why they were behaving that way. I decided to talk to my mother. She asked me, “Have you forgotten your Chinese way?” I asked her what she meant. She said, “You’ve forgotten the place of women in a Chinese home. You talk when you should remain silent. You speak on matters that are of concern only to men. You speak openly of your inner feelings and desires. That’s not the way of a Chinese woman. We keep our thoughts and feelings to ourselves. ” As my mother spoke, I realized what had happened to me. Americans, including American women, are much freer in expressing their thoughts and feelings. Also American women feel as feel as free as men to speak or give an opinion about any subject. They don’t take a silent back seat during a discussion. I guessed that through my association with Americans during the past six years, I had gradually adopted some of their ways. During the next few days I tried to be a Chinese woman. But it didn’t work. My family remained distant from me. They could no longer accept me fully as one of them. I became more uncomfortable and hurt as things were said and done that made me feel that I was an outsider, a stranger in my own country. I cut my visit short by three weeks and came back to the United States. But coming back here didn’t lessen the confusion and pain. In fact. I feel more confused than before. I now feel homeless. I don’t feel like an American. Americans haven’t accepted me. The women I work with at the store are polite enough, but they don’t try to get close to me or let me get close to them. During the morning coffee break they make plans to have lunch together and go shopping. On Fridays they talk about the disco place they’re going to that night. They never include me in their plans. My accent, my name, and my oriental features mark me as a foreigner. I’ve felt for a long time that I wasn’t being accepted by Americans, but I’d felt that I was Chinese and that my home was Hong Kong. Now I no longer consider Hong Kong my home. And so I feel homeless. I’m caught between the old world where I no longer belong and the new world which has not yet accepted me. Unit 2 Text B Culture Shock – The Initial Stresses My friend Dr. Dong had a wonderful chance to go to Seattle to present a paper at a professional meeting. Having attended my course in Intercultural Communications, he consulted me to review some of the cultural differences he might experience. I also gave him the phone number of a friend of mine who lived in the area. When he got back, we met to review his experience. Dr. Dong told me that the course information had helped him. He experienced the typical stages of culture shock. He arrived expectant and happy and enjoyed his first days very much. At the medical conference, he felt quite confident of his area of research and was able to perform well in his presentation. But after a few days, he began to feel uncomfortable. His medical English was fine, but the social interaction skills were different, and he was unsure of the cues and the communication styles. He worried more and more that he was misunderstanding simple English greetings and table talk conventions. When people greeted him whit, “Hi, how’s it going?” he thought they had asked him “where are you going?” and answered with the name of the conference hall, only to get a confused stare from them. At a western style dinner, a colleague asked, “So how’re you enjoy in the States?” he thought he head, “So how are you enjoying your steak?” and answered that he was having chicken, not beef. That time, his colleague smiled, and patiently repeated the question. At last, they both laughed at the error. Such failures in understandings and communications were minor. But for Dr. Dong, they were the beginning of a sense of “cultural confusion”. By the end of the meetings, he felt a deep sense of “cultural stress” and was worn out from having to pay attention to so many new expressions and ways of dealing with things. He felt his handshake was not as firm as Americans’, found that people reacted unusually when he modestly insisted his English was not good after they complimented him, didn’t know how to accept dinner invitations properly and therefore missed out on going to several lunches, and so on. Eventually, he was so bewildered that he felt the full impact of “culture shock”. What is culture shock and why does it occur? The term was coined about 50 years ago by a Swedish scholar. His seminal article, “Culture Shock: Adjustment to New Cultural Environments” has been reprinted and revised for many textbooks and magazines. He called it” the occupational disease of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad”. His use of the word “disease” is a pun, because it implies that it is like an “illness” with its own “symptoms and cure”, but also that the root cause is also a feeling of “dis -“ease or unsettled uneasiness. Think back on your own experience. Have you ever moved from one context to another? Many students feel this adjustment shock when they change from one school to another, or more from a small town to a big city. The sensations one feels in new surroundings often include: Feeling like an outsider, feeling unsure of oneself or even feeling stupid; Sensing that one’s language skills aren’t good enough, missing jokes, colloquial phrases, references to TV shows or pop songs or other cultural “insider” information; Feeling uneasy and unsettled, irritable and increasingly short-tempered; Feeling lonely and wanting to go “home”, feeling more and more like a stranger or outcast; Feeling overwhelmed, overloaded, daydreaming, staring blankly at things or even staring at nothing; Becoming more and more afraid of communicating and of making mistakes, worried, anxious. These are all symptoms of initial culture shock. Whit a new context comes new ways of doing things. Being uninitiated and unsure of what to do , people usually have a strong sense of displacement in the beginning. But the good news is that we humans are very good at adapting. Though almost all of us undergo some degree if mental stress in this period, after a few weeks or months, we learn how to “read” our new context. We become aware of the new cues, the new expectations, and the new ways of communicating. With some trials and errors, and with a lot of patience with ourselves, most of us succeed in overcoming culture shock and learn to enjoy our new context. Dr. Dong’s visit to US was only three weeks long, but by the end of the five-day medical conference, he was already starting to feel more confident. Sure he felt a little foolish about some of the mistakes he had made, but he quickly learned to laugh at his errors and found that his colleagues smiled with him. This broke down the barriers to communication and helped him build some good professional relationships. And after the conference, he contacted the family I had referred him to and had a very nice time visiting them. There were some new cultural surprises, but he discovered he could better understand and adapt to them. By the time he returned to China, he was feeling quite positive about his American trip, and was glad for the new experiences and new skills it had given him. He had become successful in the initial period in a new culture. Though he had gone through some embarrassing culture stresses, each had proven to be a valuable learning experience, and in the end had helped him overcome his culture shock. U