英语朗诵选材

长江师范学院2010年大学生英语朗诵比赛诵读材料 分级说明：为了便于参赛选手准备此次朗诵比赛，诵读篇目被划定了难度系数。难度系数为1、2、3三个等级。难度系数为1，最后得分为评委评分X100%；难度系数为2，最后得分为评委评分X105%；难度系数为3，最后得分为评委评分X110%。 朗诵要求：参赛选手自行选择篇目，经反复练习，达到能脱稿朗诵的程度。朗诵比赛复赛和决赛时，一律脱稿朗诵，照稿朗诵不予评分。初赛由任课教师自行确定；复赛只有脱稿朗诵一个环节；决赛有脱稿朗诵和即兴答问两个环节。问 题 快递公司问题件快递公司问题件货款处理关于圆的周长面积重点题型关于解方程组的题及答案关于南海问题 与朗诵篇目相关。 Passage 1（难度系数：1） On Learning Learning is one’s own business, which cannot rely on others. As we know, learning is a process of accumulating knowledge. It is one’s life-long task, which cannot be accomplished in one move. A successful learner is an independent one who has both an indomitable (unyielding) will and amazing endurance. He will try to discover his own way of learning. Instead of waiting for the teacher’s help, he will make efforts to create favorable conditions on his own initiative. It will certainly be of great help, if there is good environment, sufficient books and equipment, as well as instructions from teachers and beneficial friends. But even if one has got all these favorable conditions, one cannot be sure to succeed in learning. So the most important factor in learning consists in one’s own effort. To learn is rather a painstaking and persevering business. Many a man is a failure because he cannot bear such indispensable hardships. Unremitting (never stopping) efforts can compensate for the lack of talents and thus enable one to get considerable progress in learning. Passage 2（难度系数：1） For all the wonderful things the Internet has brought us, people still can’t do the simple things like reaching out and touching someone else. Or can they? When the Internet was first introduced, it was completely textual. Words could be transmitted to one another but nothing more. But as the World Wide Web came online, people could share images of what they were talking about. As technology progressed, those images became “real-time” in the form of web-cameras and video links. Along with that came the ability to hear and communicate with voice. While the Internet has met the needs of sight and sound, it has not reached touch, taste, and smell yet.   Several groups out there are trying to break those barriers. Immersion is developing a system called TouchSense. With the plug-in they provide for free at their site and the correct type of mouse, one can actually “feel” the sensation of rolling over different things online. Passage 3（难度系数：2） A Forever Friend "A friend walks in when the rest of the world walks out." Sometimes in life, You find a special friend; Someone who changes your life just by being part of it. Someone who makes you laugh until you can't stop; Someone who makes you believe that there really is good in the world. Someone who convinces you that there really is an unlocked door just waiting for you to open it. This is Forever Friendship. when you're down, and the world seems dark and empty, Your forever friend lifts you up in spirits and makes that dark and empty world suddenly seem bright and full. Your forever friend gets you through the hard times, the sad times, and the confused times. If you turn and walk away, Your forever friend follows, If you lose you way, Your forever friend guides you and cheers you on. Your forever friend holds your hand and tells you that everything is going to be okay. And if you find such a friend, You feel happy and complete, Because you need not worry, You have a forever friend for life, And forever has no end. Passage 4（难度系数：1） Negotiation A negotiation is a give-and-take proposition. For it to end in a positive manner it must be a win-win situation for both parties. It is not a game where there is only a winner and a loser. The goal of negotiations is not a dead competitor. That is not to say that competition is not needed in negotiations. In fact, competition is an ingredient for a healthy negotiation. That way, each party will raise its competence level and the final agreement will be a more meaningful one. Negotiations have to be looked on as a cooperative enterprise in which both parties feel that they have gained. If the outcome of a negotiation ends up in a lopsided “victory” for one side, you can rest assured that such settlement will not stick and those negotiations would have been futile. Pushing your opponent to the ropes might not be wise. There is a point where your opponent will simply decide that there is no gain in negotiating with you and abandon the whole process. Passage 5（难度系数：1） Knowledge and Power Knowledge and power are the two things most desired by man. There is close connection between these two things. The man, having done his best in acquiring knowledge, will easily get a high position and perform it successfully. Power depends on knowledge. Knowledge to power is just like a compass to a ship, by which her sailing is made safely across an unknown ocean. A great statesman or a learned scholar can render (give) his good services to his country just because he has perfect and profound knowledge. Power only follows knowledge. A man cannot do anything well unless he has some information as how to do it well. A man will sometimes lose his way in a strange land; an apprentice cannot produce any delicate work. Why are these so? Because they are in want of knowledge. If the apprentice wishes to produce good work, he must pay attention to his instructor’s advice. We are all the future masters of our country. Our country needs our services. How can we fulfill our future tasks? To get more knowledge is the only answer. Passage 6（难度系数：1） Try to Be a Good Student Perhaps it is the dream of everyone to be a good student at school, but quite a few students feel at a loss on how to make it. In my opinion it is rather easy if you can act on the following points. First of all, make full use of your time and work hard. Don’t put off till tomorrow what should be done today, as time past will never come back. The fast developing society requires adequate knowledge, which presses us to spare no efforts to study. Of course, your hard work will be rewarded one day. Secondly, use your own head and present your point of view. Credulous（轻信的）attitude will only make you take anything for granted. With your own judgment you will be able to tell right from wrong and set up your own theory. Thirdly, set aside enough time for relaxation, entertainment, etc. don’t ignore the harm of all work and no play. Proper sports will build up your body and improve the efficiency of your studying. To be a good student is easier said than done, for it needs a student’s consistent efforts. But nothing is difficult to a man if he puts his heart into it. Passage 7（难度系数：1） Ability and Gook Looks Old people usually tell the young, “Don’t judge a person by his appearance.” Meaning ability is more important than appearance. Indeed, we’ve seen so many brilliant but not at all good-looking people. In the film Mozart, an opera singer reiterates (repeat) this view by saying, “For a woman of taste, it is not the looks, but the talent that interests me.” For her, the preference shows one’s taste. However, nowadays, with more and more interviewers putting much emphasis on the looks, the appearance of the job-applicants, a lot of people come to the conclusion that appearance is more important than ability because many beautiful girls acquire very good positions although they don’t have much talent. In my opinion, ability is definitely much more important than good looks, because it demonstrates one’s own self-cultivation. It bespeaks (show) the efforts and the glory of acquiring something through one’s hard work whereas a good look bespeaks no struggle of the individual. Good looks are pleasant, but I like the ability because it really shows something of my own self. Passage 8（难度系数：1） The Dictionary The dictionary is a living teacher. Whenever you come across a new word, just consult it and you will get a clear definition. Every student, whether attending school or self-taught, should always have a dictionary at hand. As a study aid, it is convenient, inexpensive and almost omniscient (all-knowing). Language skills will develop with your constant use of various dictionaries. The more you use them, the more familiar you will become with them. Sooner or later, you will be quite skilled in finding the page, scanning the entries and locating the exact meanings of the new words. But you should have one thing in mind. As a language student, you can never become too much attached to dictionaries; basic language skills do not come from dictionaries, but from your practice. Expose yourself to the language by listening, speaking, reading and writing more, and that is the only way to the mastery of a language. Passage 9（难度系数：1） Water “Water, which is essential for life, costs nothing. On the other hand, diamonds, which are essential for nothing, cost a lot.” Unfortunately, the world has changed considerably since an 18th century economist made this remark.   What was true over 200 years ago is certainly no longer true now. In a number of countries people pay as much for water in their homes as they do for electricity.   What is still true, however, is the remark made by Benjamin Franklin at the same time as the previous observation was made. “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water,” he observed.   Like health, we ignore water when we have it --- unless there are floods, of course. Once there is a threat to our water supply, however, water can quickly become the only thing that matters. We know only too well that, without water, there can be no life.   The situation is now becoming so bad that environmentalists feel it may be necessary to shock the world into saving water in a similar way to the shock caused by the oil crisis in the 1970s. Passage 10（难度系数：1） We Have Only One World When industries grow, pollution also grows. Today the problem of environment has become more and more important. The world population is rising so quickly that the world has become too crowded. We are using up our natural resources too quickly and at the same time we are polluting our environment with dangerous chemicals. If we don’t take action immediately, then we will destroy our only world. Man has made great progress in environment protection. Government of many countries has established laws to protect the forest and sea resource and to stop the environmental pollution. Still more measures should be taken to solve the problem. First, we should start by educating the public about the hazards of pollution. The government on its part should also design stricter laws. This is not only for our own generation but also for the future generation to come. It is necessary to protect our nature environment. We must begin now to protect our only world. Passage 11（难度系数：2） Before all the different types of Barbie dolls for sale now, there was just a single Barbie. Actually, her name was Barbara. Barbara Handler was the daughter of Elliot and Ruth Handler, co-founders of the Mattel Toy Company. Ruth came up with the idea for Barbie after watching her daughter play with paper dolls. The three-dimensional model for Barbie was a German doll—a joke gift for adults described as having the appearance of “a woman who sold sex”. Mattel refashioned the doll into a decent, all-American—although with an exaggerated breast size—version and named it after Barbara, who was then a teenager. Since her introduction in 1959, Barbie has become the universally recognized Queen of the Dolls. Mattel says the average American girl owns ten Barbie dolls, and two are sold somewhere in the world every second. Now more than sixty years old, Barbara—who declines interviews but is said to have loved the doll—may be the most famous unknown figure on the planet. Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, was introduced in 1961 and named after Barbara’s brother. The real Ken, who died in 1994, was disgusted by the doll that made his family famous. “I don’t want my children to play with it,” he said in 1993. Passage 12（难度系数：2） Fourteen-year-old Sam Wilson ran away from home to join his father and older brothers in the fight to liberate the American colonies from the British during the American Revolution. At age 23, he started a meat-packing business and earned a reputation for being honest and hard-working. During a later war in 1812, Wilson gained a position inspecting meat for US Army forces, working with a man who had signed a contract with the government to provide meat to the army. Barrels of meat supplied to the army were stamped “EA-US”, identifying the company (EA) and the country of origin (US). According to one story, when a government official visited the plant and asked about the letters, a creative employee told him “US” was short for “Uncle Sam” Wilson. Soon soldiers were saying all Army supplies were from “Uncle Sam”. After the war, a character called Uncle Sam began appearing in political cartoons, his form evolving from an earlier cartoon character called Brother Jonathan that was popular during the American Revolution. Uncle Sam soon replaced Brother Jonathan as American’s most popular symbol. The most enduring portrait of Uncle Sam was created by artist James Montgomery Flagg in his famous army recruiting posters of World Wars I and II. That version—a tall man with white hair and a small white beard on his chin, a dark blue coat and a tall hat with stars on it—was a self-portrait of Flagg. Passage 13（难度系数：2） Ideally, people would like to know when an earthquake is going to happen and how bad it will be. In both Japan and China, people have long believed that earthquakes can be forecast. In Japan, scientists have wired the Earth and sea to detect movements. The Chinese have traditionally watched animals and plants for warning signs of earthquakes. For example, the Chinese have noted that before an earthquake, hens’ behavior changes — they refuse to enter their cages at night. They have also noticed that snakes come out of the ground to freeze to death and that dogs bark a lot, even normally quiet dogs. Before the Hanshin earthquake in Japan, there were reports of large schools of fish swimming near the surface of the water. Certain birds, like pigeons, also seemed to be especially noisy, and were reported to be flying in unusual patterns before the earthquake. Perhaps most interesting, and most easily measured, is a chemical change in ground water before a quake. Experimental data seem to indicate that the amount of radon (Rn) in the water under the surface of the Earth waxes before an earthquake. People would also like to be able to prevent the great destruction of property caused by earthquakes. After all, most of the people who die in earthquakes are killed by falling buildings. Therefore, building structures that can withstand the power of earthquakes is a major concern. Passage 14（难度系数：2） Suzanne tries to lecture me about repairs to my wheelchair, which is always breaking down because welfare won’t spend the money maintaining it properly. “You know, Mr. Callahan, I’ve heard that you put a lot more miles on that wheelchair than average.” Of course I do. I’m an active worker, not a vegetable. I live near downtown, so I can get around in a wheelchair. I wonder what she’d think if she suddenly broke her hip and had to crawl to work. Government cuts in welfare have resulted in hunger and suffering for a lot of people, not just me. But people with spinal cord injuries felt the cuts in a unique way: The government stopped taking care of our chairs. Each time mine broke down, lost a screw, needed a new roller bearing, the brake wouldn’t work, etc., and I called Suzanne, I had to endure a little lecture. Finally, she’d say, “Well, if I can find time today, I’ll call the medical worker.”  She was supposed to notify the medical worker, who would certify that there was a problem. Then the medical worker called the wheelchair repair companies to get the cheapest bid. Then the medical worker alerted the main welfare office at the state capital. They considered the matter for days while I lay in bed, unable to move. Finally, if I was lucky, they called back and approved the repair. Passage 15（难度系数：2）  If the evolutionary pressures of the marketplace are making EQ, not IQ, the hot ticket for business success, it seems likely that individuals will want to know how to cultivate it. I have a modest proposal: Embrace a highly personal practice aimed at improving these four adaptive skills:  Raising consciousness. I think of this as thinking differently on purpose. It’s about noticing what you are feeling and thinking and escaping the conditioned confines of your past. Raise your consciousness by catching yourself in the act of thinking as often as possible. Routinely take note of your emotions and ask if you’re facing facts or avoiding them. Using imagery. This is what you see Olympic ski racers doing before entering the starting gate. With their eyes closed and bodies swaying, they run the course in their minds first, which improves their performance. You can do the same by setting aside time each day to dream with passion about what you want to achieve. Considering and reconsidering events to choose the most creative response to them. When a Greek philosopher said 2,000 years ago that it isn’t events that matter but our opinion of them, this is what he was talking about. Every time something important happens, assign as many interpretations to it as possible, even crazy ones. Then go with the interpretation most supportive of your dreams.  Integrating the perspectives of others. Brain research shows that our view of the world is limited by our genes and the experiences we’ve had. Learning to incorporate the useful perspectives of others is nothing less than a form of enlarging your senses. The next time someone interprets something differently from you—say, a controversial political event—pause to reflect on the role of life experience and consider it a gift of perception. Passage 16（难度系数：2） Mrs. Baroda was a little annoyed to learn that her husband expected his friend, Gouvernail, up to spend a week or two on the plantation. Gouvernail's quiet personality puzzled Mrs. Baroda. After a few days with him, she could understand him no better than at first. She left her husband and his guest, for the most part, alone together, only to find that Gouvernail hardly noticed her absence. Then she imposed her company upon him, accompanying him in his idle walks to the mill to press her attempt to penetrate the silence in which he had unconsciously covered himself. But it hardly worked. "When is he going — your friend?" she one day asked her husband. "For my part, I find him a terrible nuisance." "Not for a week yet, dear. I can't understand; he gives you no trouble." "No. I should like him better if he did — if he were more like others, and I had to plan somewhat for his comfort and enjoyment." Gaston pulled the sleeve of his wife's dress, gathered his arms around her waist and looked merrily into her troubled eyes. "You are full of surprises," he said to her. "Even I can never count upon how you are going to act under given conditions. Here you are," he went on, "taking poor Gouvernail seriously and making a fuss about him, the last thing he would desire or expect." "Fuss!" she hotly replied. "Nonsense! How can you say such a thing! Fuss, indeed! But, you know, you said he was clever." "So he is. But the poor fellow is run down by too much work now. That's why I asked him here to take a rest." Passage 17（难度系数：2） My experience with a foreign language began in junior middle school, when I took my first English class. I had a kind and patient teacher who often praised all of the students. Because of this positive method, I eagerly answered all the questions I could, never worrying much about making mistakes. I was at the top of my class for two years. When I went to senior middle school, I was eager to continue studying Engli