值得背誦經(jīng)典英語(yǔ)文章
英語(yǔ)不僅僅是一種語(yǔ)言了,它還是一種渠道和溝通的橋梁。下面是學(xué)習(xí)啦小編帶來(lái)的值得背誦經(jīng)典英語(yǔ)文章,歡迎閱讀!
值得背誦經(jīng)典英語(yǔ)文章1
Changing Roles of Public Education
One of the most important social developments that helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the role of public education was the effect of the baby boom of the 1950's and 1960's on the schools. In the 1920's, but especially in the Depression conditions of the 1930's, the United States experienced a declining birth rate --- every thousand women aged fifteen to forty-four gave birth to about 118 live children in 1920, 89.2 in 1930, 75.8 in 1936, and 80 in 1940. With the growing prosperity brought on by the Second World War and the economic boom that followed it young people married and established households earlier and began to raise larger families than had their predecessors during the Depression. Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946,106.2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955. Although economics was probably the most important determinant, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed on the idea of the family also helps to explain this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began streaming into the first grade by the mid 1940's and became a flood by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself overtaxed. While the number of schoolchildren rose because of wartime and postwar conditions, these same conditions made the schools even less prepared to cope with the food. The wartime economy meant that few new schools were built between 1940 and 1945. Moreover, during the war and in the boom times that followed, large numbers of teachers left their profession for better-paying jobs elsewhere in the economy.
Therefore in the 1950's and 1960's, the baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently, the " custodial rhetoric" of the 1930's and early 1940's no longer made sense that is, keeping youths aged sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could no longer be a high priority for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach younger children aged five to sixteen. With the baby boom, the focus of educators and of laymen interested in education inevitably turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic skills and discipline. The system no longer had much interest in offering nontraditional, new, and extra services to older youths.
公共教育的角色變化
一項(xiàng)重要的、有可能促使人們對(duì)公共教育的角色的看法發(fā)生轉(zhuǎn)變的社會(huì)發(fā)展是本世紀(jì)五六十年代的生育高峰對(duì)學(xué)校的影響。在20年代,尤其是在30年代后的大蕭條中,美國(guó)經(jīng)歷了一次出生率的下降--1920年每千名年齡在15歲至45歲的婦女生下大約118個(gè)存活嬰兒,1930年89.2個(gè),1936年75.8個(gè),1940年80個(gè)。隨著二戰(zhàn)帶來(lái)的持續(xù)繁榮以及隨之而來(lái)的經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng),年輕人比大蕭條中的同齡人更早地結(jié)婚成家,而且比前輩養(yǎng)育更大的家庭。 1946年出生率上升到102%,1950年達(dá)106%,1955年達(dá)118%。對(duì)于生育高峰,經(jīng)濟(jì)有可能是最重要的決定因素,但它并不是唯一的解釋。不斷受到重視的家庭觀念也有助于解釋出生率的上升。到40年代中期為止,這些生育高峰出生的孩子們開始源源不斷地進(jìn)入小學(xué)一年級(jí)。到了1950年,就形成了一股洪流。公共教育系統(tǒng)突然感到不堪重負(fù)了。由于戰(zhàn)時(shí)和戰(zhàn)后的狀況,使得學(xué)齡兒童人數(shù)增加,這些狀況使得學(xué)校面對(duì)這股洪流更加措手不及。戰(zhàn)時(shí)經(jīng)濟(jì)意味著在1940年到1950年間幾乎沒有建立新學(xué)校。而且,在戰(zhàn)時(shí)和隨后的經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)時(shí)期,大量的教師離開崗位去別處從事報(bào)酬更為優(yōu)厚的工作。因此,在五六十年代,生育高峰沖擊著陳舊而不完備的學(xué)校體系。這樣一來(lái),30年代以及40年代早期,"監(jiān)護(hù)理論"就不再有意義了。也就是說,通過使16歲以上的年輕人留在學(xué)校不進(jìn)入勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)的做法再也不是教育機(jī)構(gòu)的優(yōu)先考慮了。因?yàn)榻逃龣C(jī)構(gòu)不再能找到場(chǎng)地和教師來(lái)教育那些更小的5-16歲的孩子。隨著生育高峰,教育者和圈外人士對(duì)教育的興趣和焦點(diǎn),不可避免地轉(zhuǎn)向了更低的年級(jí)和基礎(chǔ)的學(xué)術(shù)技能和學(xué)科上。這個(gè)系統(tǒng)不再有濃厚的興趣給較年長(zhǎng)的年輕人提供非傳統(tǒng)的新式的和額外的服務(wù)。
值得背誦經(jīng)典英語(yǔ)文章2
The piano
The ancestry of the piano can be traced to the early keyboard instruments of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries --- the spinet, the dulcimer, and the virginal. In the seventeenth century the organ, the clavichord, and the harpsichord became the chief instruments of the keyboard group, a supremacy they maintained until the piano supplanted them at the end of the eighteenth century. The clavichord's tone was metallic and never powerful; nevertheless, because of the variety of tone possible to it, many composers found the clavichord a sympathetic instrument for intimate chamber music. The harpsichord with its bright, vigorous tone was the favorite instrument for supporting the bass of the small orchestra of the period and for concert use, but the character of the tone could not be varied save by mechanical or structural devices.
The piano was perfected in the early eighteenth century by a harpsichord maker in Italy (though musicologists point out several previous instances of the instrument). This instrument was called a piano e forte (sort and loud), to indicate its dynamic versatility; its strings were struck by a recoiling hammer with a felt-padded head. The wires were much heavier in the earlier instruments. A series of mechanical improvements continuing well into the nineteenth century, including the introduction of pedals to sustain tone or to soften it, the perfection of a metal frame, and steel wire of the finest quality, finally produced an instrument capable of myriad tonal effects from the most delicate harmonies to an almost orchestral fullness of sound, from a liquid, singing tone to a sharp, percussive brilliance.
鋼琴
鋼琴的家系可以追溯至15至16世紀(jì)早期的鍵盤樂器,包括小型撥弦琴、洋琴和維金娜琴。 17世紀(jì)時(shí)風(fēng)琴、敲弦琴和撥弦琴成為鍵盤樂器類的主要成員。這種至高無(wú)上的地位一直為它們所保持,直到18世紀(jì)末期鋼琴將它們?nèi)〈?。敲弦古鋼琴的音調(diào)有金屬的音質(zhì),缺乏雄勁。然而由于它的音調(diào)變化多,許多作曲家發(fā)現(xiàn)對(duì)于親切的室內(nèi)樂是一種得體的樂器。人們最喜歡用具備明快有力音調(diào)的撥弦古鋼琴來(lái)配合當(dāng)時(shí)小型管弦樂團(tuán)的低音樂器以及在演奏會(huì)上演奏。但它的音調(diào)難以變化,除非使用機(jī)械或構(gòu)件裝置。
18世紀(jì)早期的意大利,鋼琴在一位撥琴鋼琴制造者手中得到完善(盡管音樂理論家們指出有更早的例子)。這種樂器被稱為piano e forte (意大利語(yǔ),柔和而響亮的),以顯示它有力的多樣性。演奏者用一個(gè)頭部帶皮氈的彈擊樂錘敲擊琴弦。更早的這種樂器之上的金屬絲要重得多。從此,持續(xù)到19世紀(jì)的一系列機(jī)械上的改進(jìn),包括引入踏板以維持音調(diào)或使其柔和,改善金屬框架,以及使用最佳性能的鋼絲,最終產(chǎn)生了一種具備無(wú)數(shù)音調(diào)效果的樂器。這些效果涵蓋了從最精致的和聲到幾乎全部的管弦樂音響,從明快流暢的吟唱的音調(diào)到尖銳的打擊樂器的清晰動(dòng)人的恢宏氣勢(shì)。
值得背誦經(jīng)典英語(yǔ)文章3
The Origin of Sports
When did sport begin if sport is, in essence, play, the claim might be made that sport is much older than humankind, for, as we all have observed, the beasts play. Dogs and cats wrestle and play ball games. Fishes and birds dance. The apes have simple, pleasurable games. Frolicking infants, school children playing tag, and adult arm wrestlers are demonstrating strong, transgenerational and transspecies bonds with the universe of animals – past, present, and future. Young animals, particularly, tumble, chase, run wrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh (or so it seems) to the point of delighted exhaustion. Their play, and ours, appears to serve no other purpose than to give pleasure to the players, and apparently, to remove us temporarily from the anguish of life in earnest.
Some philosophers have claimed that our playfulness is the most noble part of our basic nature. In their generous conceptions, play harmlessly and experimentally permits us to put our creative forces, fantasy, and imagination into action. Play is release from the tedious battles against scarcity and decline which are the incessant, and inevitable, tragedies of life. This is a grand conception that excites and provokes. The holders of this view claim that the origins of our highest accomplishments ---- liturgy, literature, and law ---- can be traced to a play impulse which, paradoxically, we see most purely enjoyed by young beasts and children. Our sports, in this rather happy, nonfatalistic view of human nature, are more splendid creations of the nondatable, transspecies play impulse.
體育的起源
體育運(yùn)動(dòng)開始于何時(shí)如果體育運(yùn)動(dòng)的本質(zhì)就是游戲的話,我們就可以宣稱體育運(yùn)動(dòng)比人類古老,因?yàn)檎缥覀兯^察到的,野獸也進(jìn)行嬉戲。狗和貓會(huì)扭抱玩球,魚和鳥翩翩起舞,猿類會(huì)進(jìn)行一些簡(jiǎn)單的、愉快的游戲。雀躍的幼兒,捉迷藏的學(xué)童和成年摔跤者展示出人與動(dòng)物界的有力的跨越世代與物種的永恒的聯(lián)系--特別是幼獸,它們翻筋斗、追逐、奔跑、扭打、模仿、嬉笑(或者看起來(lái)是),直到愉快地筋疲力盡。他們的玩耍,同我們的一樣,似乎并沒有別的目的而只是給游戲者以愉悅,暫時(shí)把我們從嚴(yán)肅生活的痛苦中拉出來(lái)。一些哲學(xué)家稱我們的嬉戲是我們本質(zhì)中最崇高的部分。依他們這些隨意性很大的見解,游戲無(wú)害而且實(shí)驗(yàn)性地允許我們的創(chuàng)造力、幻想和想象發(fā)揮作用。游戲讓人們從永不間斷亦不可避免的生活悲劇- 與乏匱和衰退進(jìn)行的枯燥抗?fàn)幹械玫揭环N解脫。
這是一個(gè)令人興奮、給人啟發(fā)的偉大見解。這種見解的持有者宣稱,我們的最高成就如宗教典禮、文學(xué)、法律的起源可以追溯到游戲的沖動(dòng)。但令人不解的是我們看到只有幼獸和小孩子才最純粹地享受著這種沖動(dòng)。從這種比較豁達(dá)和非宿命的人性觀來(lái)看,我們的運(yùn)動(dòng)是超時(shí)代、跨物種的輝煌的創(chuàng)造。