Unit Five
Reading Comprehension
Ⅰ.Questions for discussion
1.What is meant by“Who would have thought,20 years ago,that a plastic and glass box smaller than the palm of your hand would ruin the good manners of millions of people”?
Answer:20 years ago people would expect manifestation of interest and care by means of,say,nodding politely,from someone they are speaking to,and his/her doing something irrelevant while indifferently(un)listening would be thought of as bad manners.But 30 million people in Britain are using smartphones now,and checking Twitter or something on their smartphones during a conversation,or putting their smartphones at near hand during a dining meeting has become something people have got used to.Meanwhile,a lot of others would not be happy with such distraction and lack of respect and proper manners.
2.How may smartphones harm our brains?
Answer:Smartphones may damage children's ability to study complex issues by dividing information into bite-sized chunks,and games apps are very likely to rob players of some of their intellectual ability by requiring only simple operations and making them lose to some degree their conscious control of parts of their own bodies.
3.What can you think of,besides what is discussed in the text,in accusation or support of smartphones?Give your reason or reasons.
Answer:open for discussion
Ⅱ.Judge,according to the text,whether the following statements are true(T)or false(F).
1.According to the text,there are about 30 million smartphone owners in Britain.(T)
2.The Stanford University in California is far from Apple's headquarters.(F)
3.According to the text,smartphones are now as powerful as the thing we had on our desktop three years ago.(T)
4.Smartphones’sales volume has an annual increase of 63 per cent as opposed to only 15 per cent for personal computers.(T)
5.According to the author more and more people from developing countries will be influenced by smartphones.(T)
Vocabulary
Fill in the blanks with words that best complete the sentences.
1.D 2.A 3.B 4.D 5.A 6.C 7.D 8.B 9.D 10.A
Cloze
Of the four choices given below for each blank,choose the one that best fits into the passage.
1.B 2.C 3.A 4.A 5.D 6.C 7.B 8.B 9.D 10.A 11.C 12.A 13.B 14.D 15.C 16.B 17.A 18.D 19.B 20.C
Translation Exercises
A.Translate the following sentences into Chinese,using the techniques of translation you have just learned.
1.Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent,a new nation,conceived in Liberty,and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.(拆译短语)87年前,我们的先辈们在这个大陆上创立了一个新国家,它孕育于自由之中,奉行人人生而平等的原则。
2.The Chinese seemed justifiably proud of their economic achievements.(拆译副词)中国人为他们在经济上取得的成就感到自豪,看来无可厚非。
3.She sat with her hands cupping her chin,staring at a corner of the little kitchen.(拆译分词短语)她坐在那儿双手托着下巴,眼睛凝视着小厨房的一角。
4.Energy can be neither created nor destroyed,a universally accepted law.(拆译短语)能量既不能被创造也不能被消灭,这是一条公认的规律。
5.It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Europe's future hinges on it.(拆译从句)欧洲的前途取决于此,这并非夸大其词。
6.Matter has certain features or properties that enable us to recognize it easily.(拆译从句)物质具有一定的特征或特性,所以能够很容易地加以识别。
7.It has been rightly stated that this situation is a threat to international security.(拆译从句)这种局势对国际安全是个威胁,这么说完全正确。
8.It is my liver that was out of order.(合并主从句)我的肝脏出了毛病。
9.The brave men,living and dead,who struggled here,have consecrated it,far above our poor power to add or detract.(合并主从句;拆分短语)那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们,活着的和去世的,已经使这块土地变得神圣,远非我们微薄的力量所能增减。
10.From Florence the river Arno ran down to Pisa,and then it reached the sea.(合并单句)阿尔诺河从佛罗伦萨流经比萨入海。
B.Translate the following sentences from Text A into Chinese.
1.These days,in contrast,many of Britain's 30 million smartphone owners think nothing of surreptitiously checking Twitter during a conversation.相反,现在英国的三千万智能手机用户中,很多人对于在交谈中悄悄查看推特信息都视为寻常。
2.They also reveal how completely the smartphone has become part of these students’identities and social frameworks.这些现象还表明智能手机已经完全成为这些学生身份标识和社交网络的一部分。
3.Self-described addicts say they don't know why they can't put the game down,and talk about compulsively tracing their fingers on tables as they subconsciously recall the catapult action of the game.游戏成瘾者在自述中声称,他们不明白为什么自己对游戏欲罢不能,他们还说,当他们无意中想到游戏中的弹射动作时,手指便会不由自主地在桌上滑动。
4.The crucial point is that owning one is a pleasure in itself.This was Steve Jobs's great insight:that engineering was a means to an end—the creation of an intuitive,elegant accessory that you want to be seen using in public.关键在于拥有智能手机本身就其乐无穷。史蒂夫·乔布斯的洞见就在于,技术是达成目的的手段,而这一目的就是创造出一种直观优雅、随身携带的物品,让人希望在众人的视线中使用它。
5.So it's really too early to say whether this revolutionary technology will produce actual revolutions.But we can be confident of one trend,at least.With every passing day,more and more people in Lesotho,Patagonia and Papua New Guinea are learning the infuriating knack of checking their smartphone's inbox while someone is talking to them.因此,现在就断言这项具有革命性意义的技术是否真能带来革命性的变化,确实还为时过早。但是,至少可以确定这样一种趋势,每天在莱索托、巴塔哥尼亚和巴布亚新几内亚都有越来越多的人学会在别人和他们说话时以令人不快的娴熟手法在智能手机上查看邮箱。