最新人教版英语选修7课文
福州三中-香港中文大学分数线
大思教育·英语课本倒背如流特训班
课文原文（高中·选修七）
Unit 1 Living well
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
can’t run or climb stairs as
quickly as other
people. In addition, sometimes I am very clumsy
and drop
things or bump into furniture.
Unfortunately, the doctors don’t 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, swim 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 stayed
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 that I don’t 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
I was too weak to go to school so my education
suffered. Every
time I returned 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 can
not 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 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 from me. I have a very busy life with no time
to sit around feeling sorry for myself. As
well as going to 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 of 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 a disability does not
mean your life is not satisfying. So
don’t
feel sorry for the disabled or make fun of them,
and don’t 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.
Unit
2 Robots
Larry Belmont worked for a
company that made robots. Recently it had
begun experimenting with a household robot. It
was going to be tested out by
Larry’s wife,
Claire.
Claire didn’t want the robot
in her house, especially as her husband would
be absent for three weeks, but Larry persuade
her or allow her to be harmed. It
would be a
bonus. However, when she first saw the robot, she
felt alarmed. His
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 embarrassed and
quickly
told him to go. It was disturbing and frightening
that he looked so
human.
One day,
Claire mentioned that she didn’t 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 trust him. She told him how
she was overweight and this made her feel
unhappy. Also she felt her home
wasn’t elegant
enough for someone like Larry who wanted to
improve his
social position. She wasn’t like
Gladys Claffern, one of the richest and most
powerful women around.
As a favor
Tony promised to help Claire make herself smarter
and her
home more elegant. So Claise 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 warmth 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. Then she went into a
jeweler 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.
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 Claire’s husband name was Larry, not
Tony.
When Claire got home, she wept
with anger in her armchair. Gladys was
everything 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 tried
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 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
didn’t want to leave her the next day
and that
he felt 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 delicious
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 just 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 the report of
Tony on his three weeks
with Claire. Tony had
protected a human being from harm. He had
prevented
Claire from harming herself through
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 Claire’s marriage. But even though Tony
had
been so clever, he would have to be
rebuilt- you can not have women falling in
love with machines.
Unit 3
Under the sea
I was 16 when I began
work in June 1902 at the whaling station. 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
witnessed it with my own eyes
many times.
On the afternoon I arrived at the station,
as I was 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. It was black and
white and fish-shaped.
Without pausing
we jumped into the boat with the other whalers and
headed out into the bay. I looked 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.
The killers over there are throwing themselves on
top of the whale’s
blow-hole to stop it
breathing. And those others are stopping it diving
or fleeing
out to sea. George told me,
pointing towards the hunt. And just at that
moment,
the most extraordinary thing happened.
The killers started racing between our
boat
and whale just like a pack of excited dogs.
Although Old Tom and other
killers were fierce
hunters, they never harmed or attacked people. In
fact, they
protected them. There was one day
when we were out in the bay during a hunt
and
James was washed off the boat.
The sea
was rough that day and it was difficult to handle
the boat. The
waves were carrying James
further and further away from us. From James’s
face, I could see he was terrified of being
abandoned by us. Then suddenly I
saw a shark.
It took over half an hour to get the boat back to
James, and when
we approached him, I saw James
being firmly held up in the water by Old Tom.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were shouts
of “Well done, Old Tom” and
“Thank God” as we
pulled James back into the boat. And then Old Tom
was off
and back to the hunt where the other
killers were still attacking the whale.
Unit
4 A Letter home
Thanks
for your letter, which took a fortnight to arrive.
It was wonderful to
hear from you. I know you
are dying to hear all about my life here, so I’ve
included some photos which will help you
picture the places I talk about.
You
asked about my high school. Well, it’s a bush
school- the classrooms
are made of bamboo and
the roofs of grass. It takes me only a few minutes
to
walk to school down a muddy track. When I
reach the school grounds there
are lots of
“good morning” for me from the boys. Many of them
have walked a
long way, sometimes up to two
hours, to get to school.
There
is no electricity or water and even no textbooks
either. I am still trying
to adapt to these
conditions. However, one thing is for sure, I have
become
more imaginative in my teaching.
Science is my most challenging subject as
my
students have no concept of doing experiments. In
fact there is no
equipment, and if I need
water I have to carry it from my house in a
bucket!
The other day I was showing the boys
the weekly chemistry experiment when,
before I
knew it, the mixture was bubbling over everywhere!
The boys who had
never come across anything
like this before started jumping out of the
windows.
Sometimes I wonder how relevant
chemistry is to these students, most of
whom
will be going back to their villages after Year 8
anyway. To be honest, I
doubt whether I am
making any difference to these boys’ lives at all.
You asked whether I’m getting to know
any local people. That is actually
quite
difficult as I don’t speak much of the local
English dialect yet. But last
weekend another
teacher, Jenny, and I did visit a village which is
the home of
one of the boys. It was my first
visit to a remote village. We walked for two and
a half hours to get there- first up a mountain
to a ridge from where we had
fantastic views
and then down a steep path to the valley below.
When we
arrived at the village, Tom’s mother,
Kiak, who had been pulling weeds in her
garden, started crying. We shook hands with
all the villagers. Everyone
seemed to be a
relative of Tom’s.
Tom’s father, led us
to his house, a low bamboo hut with grass sticking
out
of the roof- this shows it is a man’s
house. The hut was round, not rectangle
like
the school buildings. There were no windows and
the doorway was just big
enough to get
through. The hut was dark inside so it took time
for our eyes to
adjust. There was a fireplace
in the centre of the hut near the doorway. The
only possessions I could see were one broom a
few tin plates and cups and a
couple of jars.
Outside Mukap was building a fire. Once the fire
was going, he
laid stones on it. When hot, he
placed them in an empty oil drum with sweet
potato, corn and greens. It smells
delicious. We ate inside the hut sitting round
the fire. I love listening to the family
softly talking to each other in their
language, even though I could not participate
in the conversation.
Later, I noticed a
tin standing upside down on the grill over the
fire. After a
short time Tom threw it out of
the doorway. I was puzzled. Tom told me that the
can was heated to dry out the leftover food.
They believe that any leftovers
attract evil
spirits in the night, so the food is dried up in
the can and the can is
then thrown out of the
hut. Otherwise they don’t waste anything.
We left the village the next morning after
many goodbyes and firm
handshakes. My muscles
were aching and my knees shaking as we climbed
down the mountain towards home. That evening I
fell happily into bed. It was
such a privilege
to have spent a day with Tom’s family.
It is
getting late and I have to prepare tomorrow’s
lessons and do some
paperwork. Please write
soon.
Unit 5 Chinese student
fitting in well
Six months ago, Xie
lei said goodbye to her family and friends in
China and
boarded a plane for London. It was
the first time she had ever left her
motherland. After getting her visa she was
very excited because she had
dreamed of this
day for so long. But she was also very nervous as
she didn’t
know what to expect. Xie lei told
me when I saw her waiting in a queue at the
student canteen between lectures.
Xie lei, who is 21 years old, has come to our
university to study for a
business
qualification. She is halfway through the
preparation year, which
most foreign students
complete before applying for a degree course. Xie
lei
highly recommends it. She said the
preparation course is most beneficial and
studying here is quite different from studying
in China, so you need some
preparation
first.
She explained that It was not
just study that was difficult. You had to get
used to a whole new way of life, which could
take up all your concentration in
the
beginning. The girl, who had lived all her life in
the same city in China. She
told me that she
had had to learn almost everything again. She
added
sometimes she felt like a child and had
to learn how to use the phone, how to
pay bus
fare, and how to ask a shopkeeper for things she
didn’t know the
English for. When she got lost
and had to ask a passer-by for directions, she
did not always understand because they did not
talk like they do on our
listening tapes.
She has lived with a host family who
give her lots of good advice. Although
some
foreign students live in student accommodation or
apartments, some
choose to board with English
families. Living with host families, in which
there
may be other college students, gives her
the chance to learn more about the
new
culture. She explained when she heard an idiom
that she didn’t
understand, she could ask her
host family for help. When she missed her
family, it was a great comfort to have a
substitute family to be with.
Xie lei’s
preparation course is helping her to get used to
the academic
requirements of a Western
university. She remember the first essay she did
for
her tutor. She found an article on the
Internet that seemed to have exactly the
information she needed. So she made a summary
of the article, revised her
draft and handed
the essay in. She thought she would get a really
good mark
but she got an E. She was numb with
shock! So She went to her tutor to ask
the
reason for his revision. First of all, her tutor
told Xie Lei that she couldn’t
write what
other people had said without acknowledging them.
Besides, as far
as he was concerned, what
other people thought was not the most important
thing. He wanted to know what his student
thought, which confused her
because she
thought that the author of the article knew far
more than she did.
Her tutor explained
that she should read lots of different opinions
and analyze
what she read. Then, in her essay
she gave her own opinion and explain it by
referring to other authors. Finally he even
encouraged her to contradict the
authors she
had read. From then on, she got the idea and her
marks had
improved. More importantly, she
become a more autonomous learner.
Xie Lei
said she feels much more at home in England now,
and what had
seemed very strange before now
appears quite normal. She has been so
occupied
with work that she hasn’t had time for social
activities. In her opinion,
it is important to
have a balance between study and a social life so
she is going
to join a few clubs. Hopefully
she will make some new friends. She deserves to
succeed.