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英语口语教程(Oral Workshop)--高级 Lesson 2

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Lesson 2

                         Are Pets Good for Mankind?

                                         Text

                               Pets Are Good for You

    The basic meaning of "pet" is an animal we keep for emotional rather than economic reasons. A pet animal is kept as a companion, and we all need companions to keep us feeling happy. But pets offer us more than mere1 companionship; they invite us to love and be loved. Many owners feel their pets understand them, for animals are quick to sense anger and sorrow. Often a cat or dog can comfort us at times when human words don't help. We feel loved, too, by the way pets depend on us for a home, for food and drink. Dogs especially, look up to their owners, which makes them feel important and needed.

    A pet can be something different to each member of the family, another baby to the mother, a sister or brother to an only child, a grandchild to the elderly, but for all of us pets provide pleasure and companionship. It has even been suggested

that tiny pets should be sent as companions to astronauts on space ships, to help reduce the stress and loneliness of space flights.

    In this Plastic Age, when most of us live in large cities, pets are particularly important for children. A pet in the family keeps people in touch with the more natural, animal world. Seeing an animal give birth brings understanding of the naturalness of childbirth, and seeing a pet die helps a child to cope with sorrow. Learning to care for a pet helps a child to grow up into a loving adult who feels responsible towards those dependent on him. Rightly we teach children to be good to their pets. They should learn, too, that pets are good for us human beings.

II . Read

    Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

                              1. An Unmatchable Cat

    I was sick that winter. It was inconvenient3 because my big room was due to be whitewashed5. I was put in the little room at the end of the house. The house, nearly but not quite on the top of the hill, always seemed as if it might slide off into the corn fields below. This tiny room had a door, always open, and windows, always open, in spite of the windy cold of a July whose skies were an unending light clear blue. The sky, full of sunshine; the fields, sunlit. 

But cold, very cold. The cat, a bluish grey Persian, arrived purring on my bed, and settled down to share my sickness, my food, my pillow, my sleep. When I woke in the mornings my face turned to half-frozen sheets; the outside of the fur blanket on the bed was cold; the smell of fresh whitewash4 from next door was cold and clean; the wind lifting and laying the dust outside the door was cold-but in the curve of my arm, a light purring warmth, the cat, my friend.

    At the back of the house a wooden tub was set into the earth, outside the bathroom, to catch the bathwater. No pipes carrying water to taps on that farm; water was fetched by ox-drawn cart when it was needed, from the well about two miles away. Through the months of the dry season the only water for the garden was the dirty bathwater. The cat fell into this tub when it was full of hot water.

 She screamed, was pulled out into a cold wind, washed in permanganate, for the tub was filthy6, and held leaves and dust as well as soapy water, was dried and put into my bed to warm. But she grew burning hot with fever. She had pneumonia7. We gave her what medicine we had in the house, but that was before antibiotics8, and so she died. For a week she lay in my arm purring, purring,in a rough, trembling little voice that became weaker, then was silent; 

licked my hand, opened huge green eyes when I called her name and begged her to live; closed them, died, and was thrown into the deep old well-over a hundred feet deep it was-which had gone dry, because the underground water streams had changed their course one year.

    That was it. Never again. And for years I matched cats in friends' houses, cats in shops, cats on farms, cats in the street, cats on walls, cats in memory, with that gentle, blue-grey purring creature which for me was the cat, the Cat, never to be replaced.

    And besides, for some years my life did not include extras, unnecessaries, ornaments9. Cats had no place in an existence spent always moving from place to place, room to room. A cat needs a place as much as it needs a person to make its own.

    And so it was not until twenty-five years later my life had room for a cat.

                      2. Mother Pays More Attention to

                         Pet Dog Than to Her Young Boy

    Dear Ann I.anders: I hope you will publish your answer to this letter because there is a family out there that needs help-fast!

    My friend (I'll call her Krista) married a nice guy in 1978. He's a sales rep on the read most of the time. Krista and Cal had a son five years ago. A nice family unit. About a month after Junior was born, Cal gave Krista a purebred beagle. She    went crazy about the dog and treated him better than the baby.

    When Junior was old enough to crawl, he began to pull the dog's tail and hit him when he thought nobody was looking.

    Two months ago, Junior began urinating in unexpected and inappropriate places. First, into his mother's shoe, then in her purse, next her jewel box. After he was punished for ruining the jewel box, he found some scissors and cut his mother's string of pearls.

    At first Krista attributed the urinating to Junior's laziness. I told her if it were laziness, he would just wet his pants and not seek special places.

    Last Christmas Day, it snowed heavily. I called Krista to chat. She sounded breathless. I asked her what she had been doing. "I've been playing outside in the snow with the dog," was her reply. I asked where Junior was. She replied, "Upstairs, watching television, I guess." What do you see here, Ann'? Sign me-A Worried Friend.

                           3. Dogs Have a Sense of Humour

    The question of whether dogs have a sense of humour is often fiercely argued. My own opinion is that some have and some haven't. Dachshunds have, but not'St Bernards or Great Danes. Apparently10 a dog has to be small to be fond of joke. You never find a Great Dane trying to be a comedian11.

    But it is fatal to let any dog know that he is funny, for he immediately loses his head and starts overdoing12 it. As an` example of this I would point to Rudolph, a dachshund I once owned, whose slogan was "Anything for a I.augh". Dachshunds are always the worst offenders13 in this respect because of their peculiar14 shape. It is only natural that when a dog finds that his mere appearance makes the viewing public laugh, he should imagine that Nature intended him to be a comedian.

    I had a cottage at t.he time outside an English village,not far from a farm.where they kept ducks, and one day the farmer called on me to say his ducks were disappearing and suspicion had fallen on my Rudolph. Why? I asked, and he said because mine was the only dog in the neighbourhood except his own Towser, and Towser had been so carefully trained that he would not touch a duck if you brought it to him with orange sauce over it.

    I was very annoyed. I said he only had to gaze intp Rudolph's truthful15 brown eyes to see how baseless were his suspicions. Had he not, I asked, heard of foxes? How much more likely that a fox was the Bad Guy in the story. He was beginning to look doubtful and seemed about to make an apology, when Rudolph, who had been listening with the greatest interest and at a certain point had left the room, came trotting16 in with a duck in his mouth.

    Yes, dachshunds overplay their sense of humour, and I suppose other dogs have their faults, but they seem unimportant compared with their virtues17.

                             4. Man and Animal

    In ancient Egypt, people believed that the cat was a god. When a cat died its owners showed their sadness by the strange habit of shaving their eyebrows18 off( More recently, in the last century in fact, the famous English writer Charles Dickens had a cat who was very fond of him. The cat didn't like to see Dickens working too hard. At night, when the cat wanted to say "Stop writingl" to his master, he often put out Dickens' candle with his paw!

    When animals become pets, the result, after a number of generations, is a smaller animal with a smaller brain. Rabbits, for example, which live as pets in a garden, are much less intelligent than their wild cousins. Of course, man doesn't always keep animals for pleasure. Many animals have to work for their masters.

    There was once a farm in Namibia, Africa, which had 80 goats. Instead of a goatherd, there was a female baboon19. She took her goats to the hills every day and brought them back at night. She always knew exactly which goats were hers-which is more than many humans could do!

                             5. Do Animals Communicate?

    When we think of communication, we normally think of using words-talking face-to-face, writing messages and so on. But in fact we communicate far more in other ways. Our eyes and facial expressions usually tell the truth even when our words do not.

    Then there are gestures, often unconscious: raising the eyebrows, rubbing the nose, shrugging the shoulders, tapping the fingers, noddin and shaking the head.

There is also the even more subtle "bodylanguage" language"of posture20: are you sitting-or standing2-with arms or legs crossed? Is that person standing with hands in pockets, held in front of the body or hidden behind ? Even the way we dress and the colours we wear communicate things to others.

    So, do animals communicate? Not in words, although a parrot might be trained to repeat words and phrases which it doesn,t understand. But, as we have learnt, there is more to communication than words.

    Take dogs for example. They bare their teeth to warn, wag their tails to welcome and stand firm, with hair erect21, to challenge. These signals are surely the cani ne equivalent of the human body-language of facial expression, gesture and posture.

    Colour can be an important means of communication for animals. Many birds and fish change colour, for example, to attract partners during the mating season. And mating itself is commonly preceded by a special dance in which both partners participate.

                            6. She's All for the Birdsl

    Twice a week, 58-year-old Mrs. Winifred Cass shops in the market for her main supplies, "topping up" daily by calling at local shops on her way home from work. But    she,s not buying family groceries!

    She returns home laden22 with heavy bags of mixed hen corn, pigeon corn, peanuts and large p ackets of bird food to feed her larger "family", the wild birds of I,eeds. And she's been doing this for 16 years.

    Daily, she feeds the birds which frequent her garden, the area around the shop where she works part-time, and several pa tches of waste-ground near her home. Then, twice every week, she ioads the carrying basket with bags of grain on to her tricycle and sets out to pedal the 20-min!ate ride up to rthe city centre.

    "In the morning, birds on my own roof at home hang almost upsidedown trying to see me through the windows." She laughed. "In severe conditions last winter, I had as many as four robins23 in my garden at the same time, though they're well known to be territorial24 birds.

    "It's amazing how many different kinds of birds I see in the city itself . In Park Square, as well as the usual starlings, pigeons and sparrows, there are blue tits, great tits, thrushes, doves, and sometimes even seagulls."

    It all started when Winifred was working at a cafe. She used to throw out stale bread and buns, and developed such an interest in the wild birds which accepted her offerings that she started taking food along to those in City Square as well.

    On one occasion, an old lady sitting in the square remarked that the birds could do with a more nutritious25 diet. So Winifred began buying corn for them.

    "In the end, I was carrying so much weight and tramping so far that my feet and arms really ached, ?she said. "I tried using wheeled shoppers, but with the weight of all that corn they were breaking within weeksl So I splashed out and bought this tricycle."

    Winifred has come across other wild-life on her travels, too. "I stop to feed families of hedgehogs which I found at the side of the railway near the park," she said.

    Despite her love of birds, she'd never want to keep one because she can't bear seeing them caged.

    Disaster struck recently when a car reversed into her parked trike, damaging its wheels. But two local business men, hearing of her activities, decided26 kindly27 to help by replacing the wheels for her.

    So now the "Bird Woman of Leeds" is back in action again, doing the job she loves best-caring for the host of feathered friends who have come to rely on her.

                         7. Too Many Pets in France

    In France a campaign has been launched to warn against the danger of a threatening over-population . . . of petsl The country is the second most densely28 populated country in the world as far as domestic animals are concerned. At the moment it is inhabited by more than 8% million dogs and almost as many cats. Every second family in Paris owns one or more pets, which cause problems of hygiene29 that cannot be solved. In the year 2000 France will have more than 15 million dogs if no drastic measures are taken to stop this increase.

    The French organization for the protection of animals has appealed to the owners to have their dogs and cats of both sexes sterilized30, because the animals themselves are in danger of becoming the first victims. Every summer, when the holiday-exodus begins, thousands of dogs and cats are abandoned, because their owners, unable to take them along, do not want to or cannot find homes where their pets will be looked after during their absence. Only one of three of these stray animals can be adopted, the other two must be killed.

    A great number of pet-owners, however, object to sterilization31 on grounds of "inadmissable cruelty".

                          8. Pets Eat Better Than Peoplel

    "My mouth watered as I imagined the lovely soup I could make from some bones in the butcher's window. There was a lot of meat on them, too. So I went in and bought some. `Certainly, one pound of bones for your dog, madam,' said the butcher brightly. My next stop was at the fish shop, where I asked for some cheap fish. 'For your cat?, asked the assistant. As you may have guessed, neither bones nor fish were for pets-they were for me, a pensioner32. But it made me think that many animals eat better meals than peoplel"

                          9. A Birthday Present for a Dog!

    "We have a friend who works in a Dog Parlour where they sell coats for dogs. A customer, choosing a coat, tried to describe her dog and the saleswoman suggested she bring the dog in so that they could fit him. Horrified33, the customer replied that she couldn't do that as it was for the dog's birthday present and she didn't want him to see it! "


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 mere rC1xE     
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过
参考例句:
  • That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
  • It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。
2 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
3 inconvenient m4hy5     
adj.不方便的,令人感到麻烦的
参考例句:
  • You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
  • Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗?
4 whitewash 3gYwJ     
v.粉刷,掩饰;n.石灰水,粉刷,掩饰
参考例句:
  • They tried hard to whitewash themselves.他们力图粉饰自己。
  • What he said was a load of whitewash.他所说的是一大堆粉饰之词。
5 whitewashed 38aadbb2fa5df4fec513e682140bac04     
粉饰,美化,掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The wall had been whitewashed. 墙已粉过。
  • The towers are in the shape of bottle gourds and whitewashed. 塔呈圆形,状近葫芦,外敷白色。 来自汉英文学 - 现代散文
6 filthy ZgOzj     
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的
参考例句:
  • The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
  • You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发,然后再去买张新的。
7 pneumonia s2HzQ     
n.肺炎
参考例句:
  • Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
  • Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。
8 antibiotics LzgzQT     
n.(用作复数)抗生素;(用作单数)抗生物质的研究;抗生素,抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
  • The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。
9 ornaments 2bf24c2bab75a8ff45e650a1e4388dec     
n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 );点缀;装饰品;首饰v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • The shelves were chock-a-block with ornaments. 架子上堆满了装饰品。
  • Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments. 一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 apparently tMmyQ     
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
参考例句:
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
11 comedian jWfyW     
n.喜剧演员;滑稽演员
参考例句:
  • The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
  • The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。
12 overdoing 89ebeb1ac1e9728ef65d83e16bb21cd8     
v.做得过分( overdo的现在分词 );太夸张;把…煮得太久;(工作等)过度
参考例句:
  • He's been overdoing things recently. 近来他做事过分努力。 来自辞典例句
  • You think I've been overdoing it with the work thing? 你认为我对工作的关注太过分了吗? 来自电影对白
13 offenders dee5aee0bcfb96f370137cdbb4b5cc8d     
n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 );犯规者;罪犯;妨害…的人(或事物)
参考例句:
  • Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
  • Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。
14 peculiar cinyo     
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的
参考例句:
  • He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
  • He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。
15 truthful OmpwN     
adj.真实的,说实话的,诚实的
参考例句:
  • You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心,他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
  • I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。
16 trotting cbfe4f2086fbf0d567ffdf135320f26a     
小跑,急走( trot的现在分词 ); 匆匆忙忙地走
参考例句:
  • The riders came trotting down the lane. 这骑手骑着马在小路上慢跑。
  • Alan took the reins and the small horse started trotting. 艾伦抓住缰绳,小马开始慢跑起来。
17 virtues cd5228c842b227ac02d36dd986c5cd53     
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处
参考例句:
  • Doctors often extol the virtues of eating less fat. 医生常常宣扬少吃脂肪的好处。
  • She delivered a homily on the virtues of family life. 她进行了一场家庭生活美德方面的说教。
18 eyebrows a0e6fb1330e9cfecfd1c7a4d00030ed5     
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
  • His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。
19 baboon NuNzc     
n.狒狒
参考例句:
  • A baboon is a large monkey that lives in Africa.狒狒是一种生活在非洲的大猴子。
  • As long as the baboon holds on to what it wants,it's trapped.只要狒狒紧抓住想要的东西不放手,它就会被牢牢困住。
20 posture q1gzk     
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势
参考例句:
  • The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
  • He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣,摆出一副打架的架势。
21 erect 4iLzm     
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的
参考例句:
  • She held her head erect and her back straight.她昂着头,把背挺得笔直。
  • Soldiers are trained to stand erect.士兵们训练站得笔直。
22 laden P2gx5     
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的
参考例句:
  • He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
  • Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。
23 robins 130dcdad98696481aaaba420517c6e3e     
n.知更鸟,鸫( robin的名词复数 );(签名者不分先后,以避免受责的)圆形签名抗议书(或请愿书)
参考例句:
  • The robins occupied their former nest. 那些知更鸟占了它们的老窝。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Benjamin Robins then entered the fray with articles and a book. 而后,Benjamin Robins以他的几篇专论和一本书参加争论。 来自辞典例句
24 territorial LImz4     
adj.领土的,领地的
参考例句:
  • The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
  • They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。
25 nutritious xHzxO     
adj.有营养的,营养价值高的
参考例句:
  • Fresh vegetables are very nutritious.新鲜蔬菜富于营养。
  • Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
26 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
27 kindly tpUzhQ     
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地
参考例句:
  • Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
  • A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。
28 densely rutzrg     
ad.密集地;浓厚地
参考例句:
  • A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
  • We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。
29 hygiene Kchzr     
n.健康法,卫生学 (a.hygienic)
参考例句:
  • Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
  • He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。
30 sterilized 076c787b7497ea77bc28e91a6612edc3     
v.消毒( sterilize的过去式和过去分词 );使无菌;使失去生育能力;使绝育
参考例句:
  • My wife was sterilized after the birth of her fourth child. 我妻子生完第4个孩子后做了绝育手术。 来自辞典例句
  • All surgical instruments must be sterilized before use. 所有的外科手术器械在使用之前,必须消毒。 来自辞典例句
31 sterilization Er0yQ     
n.杀菌,绝育;灭菌
参考例句:
  • Sterilization by filtration is subject to one major theoretical limitation. 过滤灭菌具有一个理论上的局限性。 来自辞典例句
  • Sterilization is a treatment that frees the treated object of all living organisms. 灭菌处理是从处理对象排除一切生活的生物。 来自辞典例句
32 pensioner ClOzzW     
n.领养老金的人
参考例句:
  • The tax threshold for a single pensioner is$ 445.单身领退休年金者的纳税起点为445英镑。
  • It was the pensioner's vote late in the day that influenced the election of Mr.Sweet.最后是领取养老金者的选票影响了斯威特先生的当选。
33 horrified 8rUzZU     
a.(表现出)恐惧的
参考例句:
  • The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
  • We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。
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TAG标签:   英语  英语口语
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