高中英语选修6课文(word人教版)
写事作文400-有关雷锋的故事
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高中英语选修6
Unit 1
A SHORT HISTORY OF
WESTERN PAINTING
Art is influenced by the
customs and faith of a people. Styles in
Western art have changed many times. As there
are so many
different styles of Western art,
it would be impossible to describe all
of them
in such a short text. Consequently, this text will
describe only
the most important ones.
Starting from the sixth century AD.
The
Middle Ages(5
th
to the 15
th
century AD)
During the Middle Ages, the main
aim of painters was to represent
religious
themes. A conventional artistof this period was
not
interested in showing nature and people as
they really were. A
typical picture at this
time was full of religious symbols, which
created a feeling of respect and love for God.
But it was evident that
ideas were changing in
the 13
th
century when painters like Giotto
di
Bondone began to paint religious scenes in
a more realistic way.
The
Renaissance(15
th
to 16
th
century)
During the Renaissance, new ideas and values
gradually replaced
those held in the Middle
Ages. People began to concentrate less on
religious themes and adopt a more humanistic
attitude to the
same time painters returned
to classical Roman and Greek ideas
about art.
They tried to paint people and nature as they
really were.
Rich people wanted to possess
their own paintings, so they coule
decorate
their superb palaces and great houses. They paid
famous
artists to paint pictures of
themselves, their houses and
possessions as
well as their activities and achievements.
One of the most important discoveries during this
period was how
to draw things in perspective.
This technique was first used by
Masaccio in
1428. When people first saw his paintings, they
were
convinced that they were looking through
a hole in a wall at a real
scene. If the rules
of perspective had not been discovered, no one
would have been able to paint such realistic
pictures. By
coincidence,oil paints were also
developed at this time, which made
the colours
used in paintings look richer and deeper. Without
the new
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paints and the new
technique, we would not be able to see the many
great masterpieces for which this period is
famous.
Impressionism(late 19h to early
20
th
century)
In the late
19
th
century, Europe changed a great
deal,from a mostly
agricultural society to a
mostly industrial one. Many people moved
from
the countryside to the new cities. There were
many new
inventions and social changes also
led to new painting styles. Among
the painters
who broke away from the traditional style of
painting
were the Impressionists, who lived
and worke in Paris.
The Impressionists were
the first painters to work outdoors. They
were
eager to show how light and shadow fell on objects
at different
times of day. However, because
natural light changes so quickly, the
Impressionists had to paint quickly. Their
paintings were not as
detailed as those of
earlier painters. At first, many people disliked
this
style of painting and became very angry
about it. They said that the
painters were
careless and their paintings were ridiculous.
Modern Art(29
th
century to today)
At
the time they were created, the Impressionist
paintings were
controversial, but today they
are accepeted as the beginning of
what we call
“modern art”. This is because the Impressionists
encouraged artists to look at their
environment in new ways. There
are scores of
modern art styles,but without the Impressionists,
many
of these painting styles might not
exsist. On the one hand, some
modern art is
abstract; that is, the painter does not attempt to
paint
objects as we see them with our eyes,
but instead concentrates n
certain qualities
of the object, using colour, line and shape to
represent them. On the other hand, some
paintings of modern art
are so realistic that
they look like photographs. These styles are so
different. Who can predict what painting
styles there will be in the
future?
Unit 3
It is a beautiful day here and I am
sitting under the big tree at the
end of the
garden. I have just returned from a long bike ride
to an old
castle. It seems amazing that at my
age I am still fit enough to cycle
20
kilometres in an ‟s my birthday in two weeks‟ time
and I
„ll be82years old! I think my long and
active life must be due to the
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healthy life I live.
This
brings me to the real reason for my letter, my
dear grandson.
Your mother tells me that you
started smoking some time ago and
how you are
finding it difficult to give it up. Believe me, I
know how
easy it is to begin smoking and how
tough it is to stop. You see,
during
adolescence I also smoked and became addicted to
cigarettes.
By the way, did you know
that this is because you become
addicated in
three different ways. First, you can become
physically
addicated to nicotine, which is one
of the hundreds of chemicals in
cigarettes.
This means that after a while your body becomes
accustomed to having nicotine in it. So when
the drug leaves our
body, you get withdrawal
symptoms. I remember feeling
bad-tempered and
sometimes even in pain. Secondly, you become
addicted through habit. As you know, if you do
the same thing over
and over again, you begin
to do it , you can
become mentally addicted. I
believed I was happier and more
relaxed after
having a cigarette, so I began to that I could
only feel
good when I smoked. I was addicted
in all three ways, so it was very
difficult to
quit. But I did finally manage.
When I was
young, I didn‟t know much about the harmful
effects
of smoking. I didn‟t know, for
example, that it could do terrible
damage to
your heart and lungs or that it was more difficult
for
smoking couples to become pregnant. I
certainly didn‟t know their
babies may have a
smaller birth weight or even be abnormal in
some way. Neither did I know that my cigarette
smoke could affect
the health of non-smokers.
However, what I did know was that my
girlfriend thought I smelt terrible. She said
my breath and clothes
smelt, and that the ends
of my fingers were turning yellow. She told
me
that she wouldn‟t go out with me again unless I
stopped! I also
noticed that I became
breathless quickly, and that I wasn‟t enjoying
sport as much. When I was taken off the school
football team
because I was unfit, I knew it
was time t quit smoking.
I am sending you
some advice I found on the Internet It might help
you to stop and strengthen
your resolve. I
do hope so because I want you to live as long and
healthy a life as I have.
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Love from
Grandad
Unit 4
THE EARTH IS
BECOMIG WARMER-BUT DOES IT MATTER?
During the
20
th
century the temperature of the earth
ros
e about one degree Fahrenheit. That
probably does not seem much
to you or me, but
it is a rapid increase when compared to other
natural changes. So how has this come about
and does it matter?
Earth care‟s Sophie
Armstrong explores these questions.
There is
no doubt that the earth is becoming warmer(see
Graph 1)
and that it is human activity that
has caused this global warmig rather
than a
random but natural phenomenon.
All scientists
subscribe to the view that the increase in the
earth‟s
temperature is due to the burning of
fossil fuels like coal, natural gas
and oil to
produce energy. Some byproducts of this process
are
called “greenhouse” gases, the most
important one of which is
carbon dioxide. Dr
Janice Foster explains: “There is a natural
phenomenon that scientists call the
“greenhouse effect”.This is when
small amounts
of gases in the atmosphere, like carbon dioxide,
methane and water vapour, trap heat from the
sun and therefore
warm the earth. Without
the„greenhouse effect
the earth would be
about thirty-three degrees Celsciu cooler than it
is.
So, we need those gases. The problem
begins when we add huge
quantities of extra
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It means that
more heat energy tends to be trapped in the
atmosphere causing the
global temperature to
go up.
We know that the levels of carbon
dioxide have increased greatly
over the last
100 to 150 years. It was a scientist called
Charles
Keeling, who made accurate
measurements of the amount of carbon
dioxide
in the atmosphere from 1957 to 1997. He found that
between
these years the carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere went up from
around 315 parts to
around 370 parts per million(see Graph 2)
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All scientists
accept this data. They also agree that it is the
burning of more and more fossil fuels that has
resulted in this
increase in carbon dioxide.
So how high will the temperature
increase go?
Dr Janice Foster says that over the next 100 years
the amount of warming could be as low as 1 to
1.5 degrees Celsius,
but it could be as high
as 5 degrees.
However, the attitude of
scientists towards this rise in completely
different. On the one hand, Dr Foster thinks
that the trend which
increases the temperature
by 5 degrees would be a catastrophe.
She says,
“ We can‟t predict the climate well enough to know
what to
expect, but it could be very serious.”
Others who agree with her think
there may be a
rise of several metres in the sea level, or
predict
severe storms, floods, droughts,
famines, the spread of diseases
and the
disappearance of species. On the other hand, there
are
those, like George Hambley, who are
opposed to this view, believe
that we should
not worry about high levels of carbon dioxide in
the air.
They predict that any warming will be
mild with few bad
environmental consequences.
In fact, Hambley states, “More
carbon dioxide
is actually a positive thing. It will make plants
grow
quicker; crops will produce more; it will
encourage a greater range of
animals-all of
which will make life for human beings better.”
Greenhouse gases continue to build up in the
atmosphere. Even
if we start reducing the
amount of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse
gases, the climate is going to keep on warming for
decades or centuries. No one knows the effects
of global warming.
Does that mean we should do
nothing? Or, are the risks too great?
Unit 5
AN EXCITING JOB
I have the
greatest job in the world. I travel to unusual
places and
work alongside people from all over
the world. Sometimes working
outdoors,
sometimes in an office, sometimes using scientific
equipment and sometimes meeting local people
and tourists, I am
never bored. Although my
job is occasionally dangerous, I don‟t mind
because danger excites me and makes me feel
alive. However, the
most important thing about
my job is that I help protect ordinary
people
from one of the most powerful forces n earth-the
volcano.
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I was appointed as
volcanologist information for a database about
Mount Kilauea, which is one of the most active
volcanoes in Hawaii.
Having collected and
evaluated the information, I help other
scientists to predict where lava from the
volcano will flow next and
how fast. Our work
has saved man lives because people in the path
of the lava can be warned to leave their
houses. Unfortunately, we
cannot move their
homes out of the way, and many houses have
been covered with lava or burned to the
ground.
When boiling rock erupts from a
volcano and crashes back to earth,
it causes
less damage than you might imagine. This is
because no
one lives near the top of Mount
Kilauea, where the rocks fall. The
lava that
flows slowly like a wave down the mountain causes
far
more damage because it buries everything
in its path under the
molten rock. However,
the eruption itself is really exciting to watch
and I shall never forget my first sight of
one. It was in the second
week after I arrived
in Hawaii. Having worked hard all day, I went to
bed early. I was fast asleep when suddenly my
bed began shaking
and I heard a strange sound,
like a railway train passing my window.
Having
experienced quite a few earthquakes in Hawaii
already, I
didn‟t take much notice. I was
about to go back to sleep when
suddenly my
bedroom became as bright as day. I ran out of the
house into the back garden where I could see
Mount Kilauea in the
distance. There had been
an eruption from the side of the mountain
and
red hot lava was fountaining hundreds of metres
into the air. It
was an absolutely fantastic
sight.
The day after this eruption I was
lucky enough to have a much
closer look at it.
Two other scientists and I were driven up the
mountain and dropped as close as possible to
the crater that had
been formed duing the
eruption. Having earlier collected special
clothes from the observatory, we put them on
before we went any
closer. All three of us
looked like spacemen. We had white protective
suits that covered our whole body, helmets,big
boots and special
gloves. It was not easy to
walk in these suits, but we slowly made
our
way to the edge of the crater and looked down into
the red,
boiling centre. The other two climbed
down into the crater to collect
some lava for
later study, but this being my first experience, I
stayed
at the top and watched them.
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Today, I am just as
enthusiastic about my job as the day I first
started. Having studied volcanoes now for many
years, I am still
amazed their beauty as well
as their potential to cause great
damage.
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