英語(yǔ)美文短篇欣賞
英語(yǔ)美文短篇欣賞
加強(qiáng)經(jīng)典美文誦讀與積累,并對(duì)學(xué)生加以寫(xiě)作指導(dǎo),做到讀寫(xiě)訓(xùn)練有效結(jié)合,能讓學(xué)生有效地提高寫(xiě)作能力。小編精心收集了初中短篇英語(yǔ)美文，供大家欣賞學(xué)習(xí)!
初中短篇英語(yǔ)美文篇1
Population Growth
The growth of population during the past few centuries is no proof that population willcontinue to grow straight upward toward infinity and doom. On the contrary, demographichistory offers evidence that population growth has not been at all constant. According topaleoecologist Edward Deevey, the past million years show three momentous changes. Thefirst, a rapid increase in population around one million B. C., followed the innovations of toolmaking and tool using.But when the new power from the use of tools has been exploited,therate of world population growth fell and became almost stable. The next rapid jump inpopulation started perhaps 10,000 years ago, when mankind began to keep herds,plow andplant the earth. Once again when initial productivity gains had been absorbed, the rate ofpopulation growth abated. These two episodes suggest that the third great change, thepresent rapid growth, which began in the West between 250 and 350 years ago, may also slowdown when, or if, technology begins to yield fewer innovations. Of course, the currentknowledge revolution may continue without foreseeable end. Either way - contrary topopular belief in constant geometric growth - population can be expected in the long run toadjust to productivity. And when one takes this view, population growth is seen to representeconomic progress and human triumph rather than social failure.
人口增長(zhǎng)
以往幾個(gè)世紀(jì)人口的增長(zhǎng)并不能證明人口會(huì)無(wú)限地直線向上增長(zhǎng)直到毀滅的地步。 相反地，人口統(tǒng)計(jì)史料證明人口的增長(zhǎng)完全不是穩(wěn)定的。 古生態(tài)學(xué)家愛(ài)德華 ·狄維認(rèn)為，在過(guò)去 100 萬(wàn)年間出現(xiàn)過(guò) 3 次重大的變動(dòng)。 第一次在公元前 100 萬(wàn)年左右，隨著在工具的制作和使用上的革新而出現(xiàn)人口迅速增長(zhǎng)。 但當(dāng)工具的使用所產(chǎn)生的新動(dòng)力被充分利用以后，世界人口增長(zhǎng)率下降并且趨于穩(wěn)定。 第二次人口劇增大約始于人類開(kāi)始蓄畜、墾耕的 10，000 年前。 一旦最初的生產(chǎn)力增長(zhǎng)被吸收殆盡，人口的增長(zhǎng)再次衰落。 以上兩段說(shuō)明，若技術(shù)革新的成果開(kāi)始減少，從250 到350 年前就在西方開(kāi)始出現(xiàn)的并且目前還在繼續(xù)的人口迅速增長(zhǎng)可能也會(huì)放慢。 當(dāng)然，當(dāng)前的知識(shí)革命也許會(huì)持續(xù)下去而無(wú)法預(yù)見(jiàn)其末來(lái)。 無(wú)論如何，與那種認(rèn)為人口以幾何級(jí)數(shù)持續(xù)增長(zhǎng)的觀點(diǎn)相反，從長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)的觀點(diǎn)來(lái)說(shuō)，人口可望受到生產(chǎn)力的調(diào)節(jié)。 接受了這一觀點(diǎn)，人口的增長(zhǎng)就可以被看成是經(jīng)濟(jì)進(jìn)步和人類勝利的標(biāo)志，而不是社會(huì)衰敗的標(biāo)志。
初中短篇英語(yǔ)美文篇2
Police and Communities
Few institutions are more important to an urban community than its police, yet there are fewsubjects historians know so little about. Most of the early academic interests developed amongpolitical scientists and sociologists, who usually examined their own contemporary problemswith only a nod toward the past. Even the public seemed concerned only during crime waves,periods of blatant corruption, or after a particularly grisly episode. Party regulars andreformers generally viewed the institution from a political perspective;newspapers andmagazines-the nineteenth century's media - emphasized the vivid and spectacular.
Yet urban society has always vested a wide, indeed awesome, responsibility in its police. Notonly were they to maintain order, prevent crime, and protect life and property, but historicallythey were also to fight fires, suppress vice, assist in health services, supervise elections,direct traffic, inspect buildings, and locate truants and runaways. In addition, it was assumedthat the police were the special guardians of the citizens' liberties and the community'stranquillity. Of course, the performance never matched expectations. The record containssome success, but mostly failure; some effective leadership, but largely official incompetenceand betrayal. The notion of a professional police force in America is a creation of the twentiethcentury; not until our own time have cities begun to take the steps necessary to producemodern departments.
警察與社區(qū)
對(duì)城市社區(qū)來(lái)說(shuō)，很少有比它的警察更為重要的機(jī)構(gòu)了，但少有課題像歷史學(xué)家們對(duì)此了解得那樣少。 早期的學(xué)術(shù)興趣是在政治科學(xué)家和社會(huì)學(xué)家中發(fā)展起來(lái)的，他們一般只研究他們自己當(dāng)代的問(wèn)題而對(duì)過(guò)去的問(wèn)題只是偶爾帶過(guò)。 甚至公眾似乎也僅僅在犯罪浪潮、明目張膽的貪污或特別的恐怖事件發(fā)生時(shí)才關(guān)心。 政黨的忠誠(chéng)支持者和改革家們通常是從政治的前途來(lái)看待警察這個(gè)機(jī)構(gòu);而報(bào)紙和雜志-19 世紀(jì)的傳播媒介-則著重活潑生動(dòng)和驚人的事件?？墒浅鞘猩鐣?huì)總是把廣泛得可怕的責(zé)任交給警察。他們不僅維持秩序、防止犯罪、保護(hù)生命財(cái)產(chǎn)，而且在過(guò)去還要救火、鎮(zhèn)壓罪惡、協(xié)助醫(yī)療服務(wù)、監(jiān)督選舉、指揮交通、檢查建筑物、尋找逃學(xué)學(xué)生和搜捕逃犯。 除此以外，警察還被認(rèn)為是公民自由和社會(huì)穩(wěn)定的特別保護(hù)者。 自然，警察的表現(xiàn)并不盡如人意。他們的記錄中有成功者，但多數(shù)是失敗的;有高效率的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，但多半的人在職務(wù)上無(wú)能和不講信用。 專業(yè)警察部隊(duì)的概念在美國(guó)還是 20 世紀(jì)的產(chǎn)物;直到我們這個(gè)時(shí)代，一些城市才開(kāi)始采取設(shè)立現(xiàn)代化部門(mén)的必要步驟。
初中短篇英語(yǔ)美文篇3
Plate Tectonics and Sea-floor Spreading
The theory of plate tectonics describes the motions of the lithosphere, the comparatively rigidouter layer of the Earth that includes all the crust and part of the underlying mantle.Thelithosphere is divided into a few dozen plates of various sizes and shapes, in general the platesare in motion with respect to one another. A mid-ocean ridge is a boundary between plateswhere new lithospheric material is injected from belows. As the plates diverge from a mid-ocean ridge they slide on a more yielding layer at the base of the lithosphere.
Since the size of the Earth is essentially constant, new lithosphere can be created at the mid-ocean ridges only if an equal amount of lithospheric material is consumed elsewhere. The site ofthis destruction is another kind of plate boundary: a subduction zone. There one plate divesunder the edge of another and is reincorporated into the mantle. Both kinds of plate boundaryare associated with fault systems, earthquakes and volcanism,but the kinds of geologic activityobserved at the two boundaries are quite different.
The idea of sea-floor spreading actually preceded the theory of plate tectonics. In its originalversion, in the early 1960's, it described the creation and destruction of the ocean floor, but itdid not specify rigid lithospheric plates. The hypothesis was substantiated soon afterwardby the discovery that periodic reversals of the Earth's magnetic field are recorded in theoceanic crust. As magma rises under the mid-ocean ridge, ferromagnetic minerals in themagma become magnetized in the direction of the geomagnetic field. When the magma coolsand solidifies, the direction and the polarity of the field are preserved in the magnetizedvolcanic rock. Reversals of the field give rise to a series of magnetic stripes running parallelto the axis of the rift. The oceanic crust thus serves as a magnetic tape recording of thehistory of the geomagnetic field that can be dated independently; the width of the stripesindicates the rate of the sea-floor spreading.
板塊結(jié)構(gòu)與海床擴(kuò)展
板塊結(jié)構(gòu)理論描述巖石圈的運(yùn)動(dòng)。 巖石圈是相對(duì)堅(jiān)硬的地球外層，包括全部地殼和部分地幔。 巖石圈被劃分為幾十個(gè)大小不同形狀各異的板塊，一般而言這些板塊都處于相對(duì)運(yùn)動(dòng)之中。 一道中海脊是板塊之間的邊界，在那里新的巖石圈的物質(zhì)從下部注入。 當(dāng)板塊從中海脊脫離時(shí)，它們滑向在巖石圈基部較易變形的地層上。 因?yàn)榈厍虻拇笮”举|(zhì)上是不變的，只有同等數(shù)量的巖石圈物質(zhì)在其它地方被吞沒(méi)，新的巖石圈才能生成。 銷毀舊巖石圈的地方形成另外一種板塊邊界：一塊潛沒(méi)的區(qū)域。 在這里，一塊板塊潛沒(méi)到另一板塊的邊緣之下并結(jié)合入地幔之中。 兩種板塊邊界均與地層系統(tǒng)、地震以及火山活動(dòng)有關(guān)，但在兩種邊界處觀察到的諸般地質(zhì)活動(dòng)卻迥然不同。 海床擴(kuò)展說(shuō)實(shí)際上早于板塊結(jié)構(gòu)理論。 在20 世紀(jì) 60 年代它的理論雛形中，描述了海底的生成和毀滅，但沒(méi)有詳細(xì)介紹堅(jiān)硬的巖石圈板塊。 這個(gè)假定不久之后為發(fā)現(xiàn)所證實(shí)。 該發(fā)現(xiàn)表明地球磁場(chǎng)周期性的逆轉(zhuǎn)被記錄在海洋地殼中。 當(dāng)巖漿從中海脊下涌起的時(shí)候，巖漿中的磁鐵礦物質(zhì)按地磁場(chǎng)的方向被磁化。 巖漿冷卻并凝固下來(lái)后，地磁場(chǎng)的方向和磁極被保留在磁化了的火山巖中。 磁場(chǎng)的逆轉(zhuǎn)形成一系列與斷層軸線平行的條形磁區(qū)。 這樣海洋殼就扮演了磁帶的角色，記錄下可以鑒定時(shí)間的地磁場(chǎng)的歷史。 條形磁區(qū)的寬度表明了海底擴(kuò)展的速度。
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