大学英语自学教程(上册) 课文及翻译六篇
01-A. How to be a successful language learner?
“Learning a language is easy, even a child can do it!”
Most adults who are learning a second language would disagree with this statement. For them, learning a language is a very difficult task. They need hundreds of hours of study and practice, and even this will not guarantee success for every adult language learner.
Language learning is different from other kinds of learning. Some people who are very intelligent and successful in their fields find it difficult to succeed in language learning. Conversely, some people who are successful language learners find it difficult to succeed in other fields.
Language teachers often offer advice to language learners: “Read as much as you can in the new language.”“ Practice speaking the language every day. ”“Live with people who speak the language.”“Don’t translate-try to think in the new language.”“ Learn as a child would learn; play with the language.”
But what does a successful language learner do? Language learning research shows that successful language learners are similar in many ways.
First of all, successful language learners are independent learners. They do not depend on the book or the teacher; they discover their own way to learn the language. Instead of waiting for the teacher to explain, they try to find the patterns and the rules for themselves. They are good guessers who look for clues and form their own conclusions. When they guess wrong, they guess again. They try to learn from their mistakes.
Successful language learning is active learning. Therefore, successful learners do not wait for a chance to use the language; they look for such a chance. They find people who speak the language and they ask these people to correct them when they make a mistake. They will try anything to communicate. They are not afraid to repeat what they hear or to say strange things; they are willing to make mistakes and try again. When communication is difficult, they can accept information that is inexact or incomplete. It is more important for them to learn to think in the language than to know the meaning of every word.
Finally, successful language learners are learners with a purpose. They want to learn the language because they are interested in the language and the people who speak it. It is necessary for them to learn the language in order to communicate with these people and to learn from them. They find it easy to practice using the language regularly because they want to learn with it.
What kind of language learner are you? If you are a successful language learner, you have probably been learning independently, actively, and purposefully. On the other hand, if your language learning has been less than successful, you might do well to try some of the techniques outlined above.
【课文译文】
怎样成为一名成功的语言学习者
“学习一门语言很容易，即使小孩也能做得到。”
大多数正在学习第二语言的成年人会不同意这种说法。对他们来说，学习一门语言是非常困难的事情。他们需要数百小时的学习与练习，即使这样也不能保证每个成年语言学习者都能学好。
语言学习不同于其他学习。许多人很聪明，在自己的领域很成功，但他们发现很难学好一门语言。相反，一些人学习语言很成功，但却发现很难在其他领域有所成就。
语言教师常常向语言学习者提出建议：“要用新的语言尽量多阅读”，“每天练习说这种语言”，“与说这种语言的人住在一起”，“不要翻译——尽量用这种新的语言去思考”，“要像孩子学语言一样去学习新语言”，“放松地去学习语言。”
然而，成功的语言学习者是怎样做的呢?语言学习研究表明，成功的语言学习者在许多方面都有相似之处。
首先，成功的语言学习者独立学习。他们不依赖书本和老师，而且能找到自己学习语言的方法。他们不是等待老师来解释，而是自己尽力去找到语言的句式和规则。他们寻找线索并由自己得出结论，从而做出正确的猜测。如果猜错，他们就再猜一遍。他们都努力从错误中学习。
成功的语言学习是一种主动的学习。因此，成功的语言学习者不是坐等时机而是主动寻找机会来使用语言。他们找到(说)这种语言的人进行练习，出错时请这些人纠正。他们不失时机地进行交流，不怕重复所听到的话，也不怕说出离奇的话，他们不在乎出错，并乐于反复尝试。当交流困难时，他们可以接受不确切或不完整的信息。对他们来说，更重要的是学习用这种语言思考，而不是知道每个词的意思。
最后，成功的语言学习者学习目的明确。他们想学习一门语言是因为他们对这门语言以及说这种语言的人感兴趣。他们有必要学习这门语言去和那些人交流并向他们学习。他们发现经常练习使用这种语言很容易，因为他们想利用这种语言来学习。
你是什么样的语言学习者?如果你是一位成功的语言学习者，那么你大概一直在独立地、主动地、目的明确地学习。另一方面,如果你的语言学习一直不太成功,你不妨试试上面提到的一些技巧。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 02 税、税、还是税
02-A. Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes
Americans often say that there are only two things a person can be sure of in life: death and taxes, Americans do not have a corner on the "death" market, but many people feel that the United States leads the world with the worst taxes.
Taxes consist of the money which people pay to support their government. There are generally three levels of government in the United States: federal, state, and city; therefore, there are three types of taxes.
Salaried people who earn more than a few thousand dollars must pay a certain percentage of their salaries to the federal government. The percentage varies from person to person. It depends on their salaries. The federal government has a graduated income tax, that is, the percentage of the tax (14 to 70 percent) increases as a person's income increases. With the high cost of taxes, people are not very happy on April 15, when the federal taxes are due.
The second tax is for the state government: New York, California, North Dakota, or any of the other forty-seven states. Some states have an income tax similar to that of the federal government. Of course, the percentage for the state tax is lower. Other states have a sales tax, which is a percentage charged to any item which you buy in that state. For example, a person might want to buy a packet of cigarettes for twenty-five cents. If there is a sales tax of eight percent in that state, then the cost of the cigarettes is twenty-seven cents. This figure includes the sales tax. Some states use income tax in addition to sales tax to raise their revenues. The state tax laws are diverse and confusing.
The third tax is for the city. This tax comes in two forms: property tax (people who own a home have to pay taxes on it) and excise tax, which is charged on cars in a city. The cities use these funds for education, police and fire departments, public works and municipal buildings.
Since Americans pay such high taxes, they often feel that they are working one day each week just to pay their taxes. People always complain about taxes. They often protest that the government uses their tax dollars in the wrong way. They say that it spends too much on useless and impractical programs. Although Americans have different views on many issues, they tend to agree on one subject: taxes are too high.
【课文译文】
税、税、还是税
美国人常说，人的一生有两件事可以肯定会发生：死亡和税收。美国人并不垄断死亡市场，但许多人却感到美国以最重的赋税领先于世界。
税指人们为支持政府而缴纳的资金。在美国通常有三级政府：联邦政府，州政府及市政府，因此就存在三种税。
收入超过几千元的工薪人士必须向联邦政府缴纳一定比率的税金。这一比率因人而异，取决于各人的工资数。联邦政府实行累进收入所得税制，也就是说，税率(14%～70%)随个人收入的增加而增加，由于高额税收，人们在4月15日很不愉快，因为这一天是缴纳税款的日子。
第二种税是缴纳给州政府的，这些州包括纽约，加利福尼亚，北达科他以及其他47个州中的任何一个。一些州的收入所得税的收取办法同联邦政府的相似，当然其税率要低一些。一些州设有销售税，即对你在该州所购买的任何商品所收的一定比率的税金。比如，某人想买一包25美分的烟。如果该州收取8%的销售税，那么买这包烟要花27美分，这一钱数就包括销售税。一些州利用收入所得税外加销售税的办法来提高税收，各州的税收法规五花八门，令人费解。
第三种税是向市政府缴纳的。这种税有两种：一种是财产税(拥有房屋的人都必须交税)，另一种是本国消费税，即对城市汽车所征收的税金。城市将这些资金用于教育、警察和消防部门、公共设施及市政建设。
由于美国人须付高额税金，所以他们经常感到每周有一天纯粹是在为缴税而工作。人们总是在抱怨税收太高。他们常常抗议政府滥用他们的税金。他们说政府将太多的钱花在无用且不符合实际的项目上了。尽管美国人在很多问题上有不同的看法，但他们在一个话题上的意见总是一致的：税收太高。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 03 大西洋
03-A. The Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americas from being discovered by the people of Europe.
Many wrong ideas about the Atlantic made early sailors unwilling to sail far out into it. One idea was that it reached out to "the edge of the world." Sailors were afraid that they might sail right off the earth. Another idea was that at the equator the ocean would be boiling hot.
The Atlantic Ocean is only half as big as the Pacific, but it is still very large. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000 km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2, 000 miles (3,200 km) wide. This narrowest place is between the bulge of south America and the bulge of Africa.
Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few islands. Also, it is the world's saltiest ocean.
There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers. It would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average the water is a little more than two miles (3.2 km) deep, but in places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This "deep" 30, 246 feet - almost six miles (9.6 km).
One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands. The Azores are the tops of peaks in the mid-Atlantic mountain range.
Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels the crew were afraid they would be becalmed here. Sometimes they were.
Ocean currents are sometime called "rivers in the sea." One of these "river" in the Atlantic is called the Gulf Stream. It is a current of warm water. Another is the Labrador Current - cold water coming down from the Arctic. Ocean currents affect the climates of the lands near which they flow.
The Atlantic furnishes much food for the people on its shores. One of its most famous fishing regions, the Grand Banks, is near Newfoundland.
Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is not, however, always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.
We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!
【课文译文】
大西洋
大西洋是将欧洲和美洲分隔开的海洋之一。它使南北美洲长达几个世纪之久都未被人发现。
人们对大西洋有许多误解，这使得早期的海员不愿意远航驶入大西洋。一种想法是大西洋远抵“世界的边缘”，海员们担心他们会一直航行到地球边上掉落下去。另一个想法是在赤道处，大西洋的海水是滚烫的。
大西洋的面积只是太平洋的一半，但也非常辽阔。哥伦布穿越过的地方宽达4000多英里(6000公里)。即使最窄的地方宽度也有大约2000英里(3200公里)，这是一片位于南美洲最东端与非洲最西端之间的水域。
大西洋有两点非同寻常。其一是在如此辽阔的海洋里少有岛屿。另外，大西洋是世界上含盐量最高的海洋。
大西洋海水量很大，人们无法想像到底有多少水。但如果假设不再有降雨和河水注入，则需4000年大西洋才会干涸。大西洋平均水深有2英里(3.2公里)多一点，但有些地方要深得多。最深处在波多黎各岛附近，深达30246英尺——约6英里(9.6公里)。
世界上最长的山脉之一从大西洋海底隆起，这条山脉沿海底中部向南北延伸，几座山峰露出海面，形成岛屿。亚速尔群岛就是大西洋中部山脉露出水面的几座山峰。
佛罗里达州向东几百英里有一处海域叫马尾藻海，这里由于很少刮风，海面很平静。在使用帆船的时代，船员们担心他们会因无风而在此处无法航行。有时他们确实会遇到这种情况。
海流有时被称作“海洋中的河流”。大西洋有一条这种“河流”，叫做墨西哥湾流，这是一股暖水流；另外一条是拉布拉多海流——这是来自北冰洋的冷水流。洋流对流域附近大陆的气候有影响。
大西洋为两岸的人们提供了丰富的食物。大浅滩是最著名的捕鱼区之一，位于纽芬兰附近。
今天，大西洋是一条重要的航路，这条航路并不总是风平浪静，毫无危险。暴风雨会掠过洋面，堆起大浪。从北冰洋漂来的冰山也会横穿航道。
我们现在有快捷的旅行方式，这个大洋似乎也变小了。哥伦布横越大西洋用了两个多月的时间，一艘现代化快轮不到4天就可完成这一航程，而乘飞机从纽约到伦敦只用8小时，从南美到非洲只用4小时。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 04 改善你的记忆力
04-A. Improving Your Memory
Psychological research has focused on a number of basic principles that help memory: meaningfulness, organization, association, and visualization. It is useful to know how these principles work.
Meaningfulness affects memory at all levels. Information that does not make any sense to you is difficult to remember. There are several ways in which we can make material more meaningful. Many people, for instance, learn a rhyme to help them remember. Do you know the rhyme “Thirty days has September, April, June, and November…? ” It helps many people remember which months of the year have 30 days.
Organization also makes a difference in our ability to remember. How useful would a library be if the books were kept in random order? Material that is organized is better remembered than jumbled information. One example of organization is chunking. Chunking consists of grouping separate bits of information. For example, the number 4671363 is more easily remembered if it is chunked as 467,13,63. Categorizing is another means of organization. Suppose you are asked to remember the following list of words: man, bench, dog, desk, woman, horse, child, cat, chair. Many people will group the words into similar categories and remember them as follows: man, woman, child; cat, dog, horse; bench, chair, desk. Needless to say, the second list can be remembered more easily than the first one.
Association refers to taking the material we want to remember and relating it to something we remember accurately. In memorizing a number, you might try to associate it with familiar numbers or events. For example, the height of Mount Fuji in Japan - 12, 389 feet - might be remembered using the following associations: 12 is the number of months in the year, and 389 is the number of days in a year (365) added to the number of months twice (24).
The last principle is visualization. Research has shown striking improvements in many types of memory tasks when people are asked to visualize the items to be remembered. In one study, subjects in one group were asked to learn some words using imagery, while the second group used repetition to learn the words. Those using imagery remembered 80 to 90 percent of the words, compared with 30 to 40 percent of the words for those who memorized by repetition. Thus forming an integrated image with all the information placed in a single mental picture can help us to preserve a memory.
【课文译文】
改善你的记忆力
心理研究集中在有助于记忆力的几个基本原则，即富有意义、组织、联想和想像。知道这些原则如何发挥作用是非常有益的。
富有意义从各个方面影响记记力。你很难记住对你毫无意义的信息，我们可以用几种办法使材料变得更有意义。例如，很多人学会用韵音来帮助他们记忆。你知道“九、四、六、十一有30天……”这首押韵诗吗?它帮助人们记住一年中哪些月份有30天。
信息的组织也对我们的记忆能力造成差异。图书馆的`书如果陈列得杂乱无章对我们还会有什么帮助吗?组织过的材料比混杂的信息更容易记住。组织信息的一个例子就是组块。组块是将一个个单独的信息组织成信息块。例如，4671363这组数字如果被组块成467 13 63就更容易记住。分类是另一种组织方法。假定要求你记住一组词：男人、凳子、狗、书桌、女人、马、孩子、猫、椅子。很多人会将这些词分成相似种类的几组，即男人、女人、孩子；猫、狗、马；凳子、椅子、书桌。不用说第二种排列比第一种排列更容易记忆。
联想指将我们要记忆的材料和我们已准确记住的信息联系起来。在记忆数字时，可以将这一数字与我们所熟悉的数字或事件联系起来，例如，日本富士山的高度为12，389英尺，这一数字可以用下面的联想法记住：12是一年中的月份数，389是一年的天数(365)加月数的两倍(24)。
最后一个基本原则是想像。研究表明，如果人们把需要记忆的东西进行想像，各种记忆能力都会有显著的提高。在一项研究中，一组受试者被要求使用想像法学习一些生词，而另外一组用重复法学习生词。用想像法记忆单词的一组记住了80%～90%的生词，相比之下，用重复法记忆单词的一组只记住了30%～40%的生词。因此，将所有的信息放在一幅内心的图画里，从而形成一个整体形象，可以帮助我们保存记忆。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 05 对食物的错误看法
05-A. Fallacies about Food
Many primitive peoples believed that by eating an animal they could get some of the good qualities of that animal for themselves. They thought, for example, that eating deer would make them run as fast as the deer. Some savage tribes believed that eating enemies that had shown bravery in battle would make them brave. Man-eating may have started because people were eager to become as strong and brave as their enemies.
Among civilized people it was once thought that ginger root by some magical power could improve the memory. Eggs were thought to make the voice pretty. Tomatoes also were believed to have magical powers. They were called love apples and were supposed to make people who ate them fall in love.
Later another wrong idea about tomatoes grew up - the idea that they were poisonous. How surprised the people who thought tomatoes poisonous would be if they could know that millions of pounds of tomatoes were supplied to soldiers overseas during World War II.
Even today there are a great many wrong ideas about food. Some of them are very widespread.
One such idea is that fish is the best brain food. Fish is good brain food just as it is good muscle food and skin food and bone food. But no one has been able to prove that fish is any better for the brain than many other kinds of food.
Another such idea is that you should not drink water with meals. Washing food down with water as a substitute for chewing is not a good idea, but some water with meals has been found to be helpful. It makes the digestive juices flow more freely and helps to digest the food.
Many of the ideas which scientists tell us have no foundation have to do with mixtures of foods. A few years ago the belief became general that orange juice and milk should never be drunk at the same meal. The reason given was that the acid in the orange juice would make the milk curdle and become indigestible. As a matter of fact, milk always meets in the stomach a digestive juice which curdles it; the curdling of the milk is the first step in its digestion. A similar wrong idea is that fish and ice cream when eaten at the same meal form a poisonous combination.
Still another wrong idea about mixing foods is that proteins and carbohydrates should never be eaten at the same meal. Many people think of bread, for example, as a carbohydrate food. It is chiefly a carbohydrate food, but it also contains proteins. In the same way, milk, probably the best single food, contains both proteins and carbohydrates. It is just as foolish to say that one should never eat meat and potatoes together as it is to say that one should never eat bread or drink milk.
【课文译文】
对食物的错误看法
很多原始民族认为吃某种动物可以使他们获得这种动物的一些好的品质。例如，他们认为吃鹿可以使他们跑得像鹿一样快。一些野蛮部落相信，吃战争中表现勇敢的敌人会使他们勇敢。吃人现象开始发生可能是因为人们渴望变得像他们的敌人那样强壮、勇敢。
一些文明人曾经认为，姜根有某种魔力，能改善他们的记忆力。蛋能美化他们的声音。也有人认为西红柿有魔力。西红柿被称为爱的苹果，他们认为吃西红柿能使人坠入爱河。
后来又出现了另一个关于西红柿的错误观点——西红柿有毒。如果认为西红柿有毒的人知道二战中数百万磅的西红柿提供给了在海外的战士们，他们会多么吃惊!
甚至在今天也有很多关于食物的错误看法，其中一些看法很普遍。一种想法认为鱼是最佳益脑食物。鱼是有益于大脑的食物，就像它对肌肉、皮肤、骨骼一样有益。但是没有人能够证明对于大脑来说鱼比其他种类的食物更好。
另外一种想法认为，吃饭的时候不应该喝水。虽然用水把食物冲下去来代替咀嚼不是个好主意，但是人们发现吃饭时喝点水是有益的。水能使消化液更自由地流动，有助于消化食物。
很多想法是关于食物混在一起吃的，而科学家告诉我们，这些想法毫无根据。几年前有一种很普遍的看法，认为不能在同一餐中喝桔子汁和牛奶，其理由是桔子汁中的酸性物质能使牛奶凝结而难以消化。事实上，牛奶在胃里总会遇到一种使它凝结的消化液，而这种凝结是消化的第一步。类似的一种错误想法认为在同一餐中吃鱼和冰淇淋会形成一种有毒的化合物。
还有一种关于食物混在一起吃的错误想法，即不能在同一餐中吃蛋白质食物和淀粉质食物。例如，很多人认为面包是一种淀粉质食物。虽然面包主要是一种淀粉质食物，但它也含有蛋白质。同样，牛奶可能是最好的单一食物，但它也含有蛋白质和淀粉。不要吃面包喝牛奶，这种说法是愚蠢的，就像说不要把肉类和土豆一起食用一样。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 19 动物濒危，谁来关心
19-A. Animals at Risk: Who Cares?
An animal species becomes extinct when it fails to produce enough young in each generation to keep pace with the death-rate. We can tell from fossil evidence in rocks that many living species have become extinct over the millions of years since life began. It is a natural process and extinction is the fate of any animal that has specialized too far to change when its environment changes, or has to compete with a better-adapted and more powerful animal. Because of remarkable technical developments during the past few centuries, man has destroyed or nearly destroyed some species by killing them at such a rate that they couldn't produce enough offspring, or by completely changing their natural environment at surprising speed.
A number of examples can be given of the way in which natural environments are being rapidly changed - Amazonia, for instance. There is every likelihood that many species of animals will be made extinct because of these and similar clearances of natural vegetation. Large numbers of animals have been hunted and killed for food. The North American buffalo is a case of the near-extinction of a species through hunting. Often the numbers are so great the hunters may not realize the danger. But even when the danger is widely publicized, the financial rewards for the hunters may be so great that they choose to ignore the threat to the species. Attitudes like this have led to hunters killing animals for furs, for ivory or merely for ornaments. A slight variation on this is when tourists hunt animals for trophies. Magnificent creatures such as lions and tigers have been hunted out of existence in some parts of the world. It is important to realize, though, that animals are sometimes killed out of fear. Big cats are killed in this way. And animals are sometimes killed out of a wish to reduce numbers to help the species to survive. The killing of the Canadian seals is claimed to be for this purpose, and the use of their skins for furs is only a by-product.
Many people are concerned about animals and wildlife conservation. One way to preserve species under threat of extinction - whatever the cause - is to remove them to zoos and parks and breed them there. There is always the chance that enough offspring will be born to return them one day to their natural environment - provided it still exists, and that hunters don't kill them again! Another method is to protect the animals in their natural environment by creating wildlife reserves and parks and using game wardens to look after them. But the parks are large, the wardens few and the determination of hunters very great. Early in 1980 wardens and hunters clashed in East Africa. The hunters were armed with modern weapons and several people were killed.
There is great pleasure in watching wildlife in natural or near-natural environments, and tourism can add to the income of countries. The animals are still resources - but in a very different form.
【课文译文】
动物濒危，谁来关心
当一种动物不能在每一代都繁殖出足够的后代而与其死亡率保持一致时，它就会逐渐灭绝了。我们可根据岩石里的化石得出结论：自生命开始数百万年以来，许多物种已经灭绝了。这是一个自然过程，任何一种过于特化而不能随环境改变而改变的动物，或者任何一种与适应性更强、更厉害的动物来竞争的动物，灭绝都是其必然的命运。由于近几个世纪技术的迅猛发展，人类大量捕杀动物以致其繁殖不出足够多的后代，或者以惊人的速度改变它们生存的自然环境，结果一些动物被毁灭或几乎被毁灭了。
很多例子都可以说明自然环境是如何迅速被改变的，亚马逊尼亚国家公园就是一个例子。很有可能，许多种动物将由于自然植物在这些或类似的地方被砍伐殆尽而濒于灭绝。大量的动物被捕杀用作食物。北美野牛就是一个因捕猎而近于灭绝的例子。
动物的数量常常很大，因而捕猎者可能意识不到它们存在灭绝的危险。但即使这种危险被广而告之，捕猎者为获取巨大经济利益，可能会无视动物的存亡。这种思想使猎人为获取毛皮、象牙或仅仅为了做一些装饰品而捕杀动物。与此略有不同的是旅游者为了留个纪念而追杀动物。狮子、老虎之类的大型动物在世界一些地方已被杀光。但有时人捕杀动物是由于害怕动物，认识这一点非常重要，大型的猫科动物就是这样被捕杀的。有时为了帮助动物生存要捕杀一些以减少其数量。据说加拿大杀海豹就是出于这个目的，而用海豹皮制革只是附带的。
许多人关心动物及野生动物的保护。不管动物濒危的原因是什么，保护方法其一就是把它们迁移到动物园和公园，在那儿喂养它们。完全有可能等它们繁殖出足够数量的后代以后，将来有一天放它们回归自然，其条件是它们还存活而且猎人不再捕杀。另一种方法是在动物生存的自然环境里创建野生动物保护区，由管理人员负责照料它们。然而保护区面积很大，管理人员少，但猎人捕杀动物的决心却很大。1980年初，在东部非洲，管理员与猎人发生过冲突。猎人持有现代化武器，有数人死亡。
在自然环境或接近自然环境里观赏野生动物是很有趣的，旅游业也可以给国家增加收入。动物仍然是资源，但它们是另一种形式的资源。