1、Unit1 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeThe passage mainly talked about the dream life of the author with his family on a farm, where the author could write and live. The author viewed his life in the country as a self-reliant and satisfying one, but sometimes the good life would get very hard. On th
2、e first winter, the author was fond of every minute instead with his family, which they would never forget, while the follow spring brought two floods, which made them amazed. After quitting his job, the authors income was reduced, but he and his family were able to manage to get by. Besides, he ran
3、 a farm and benefited more from it. A tolerance for solitude and a lot of energy had made it possible for the family to enjoy their life in the country. Whats more, they also had found the lifestyle that they preferred in this place.Unit 2 The Freedom GiversThe passage mainly talked about three pers
4、ons, Josiah Henson, John Parker and Levi Coffin, who were the givers of freedom for black slaves in the American history. Besides, the author praised the exploits of civil-rights heroes who helped slaves travel the Underground Railroad to freedom by citing more examples. Whats more, it was high time
5、 to honor the heroes who helped liberate slaves by forging the Underground Railroad in the early civil-rights struggles in America. After winning his own freedom from slavery, John Parker helped other slaves to escape north to Canada and freedom. Supported by a strong religious conviction, the white
6、 man Levi Coffin risked himself to help many black slaves to escape. At last, by traveling the Underground Railroad, Josiah Henson reached his destination and became free.Unit 3 The Land of the LockThe passage mainly talked about the land of lock, which happened in American. When the author was youn
7、g, it was the local custom for people to leave the front door at night but didnt close it, and none of them carried keys. However, nowadays those days were over, and the era of leaving the front door on the latch has drawn to a close. What a great change was that no locking had been replaced by dead
8、-bolt locks, security chains, electronic alarm systems and so on. Therefore, the lock became the new symbol of America. Whats more, a new atmosphere of fear and distrust had crept into every aspect of daily life. As a result, security devices, in varied forms, were put to use. In locking their fears
9、 out, they became prisoners of their own making.Unit 4 Was Einstein a Space AlienThe passage mainly talked about Albert Einstein, who was a young husband and father with a bushy hair. In order to support his young family, with a poor sleep, he had to work hard at the Patent Office so that he was ver
10、y tired. For which, he felt all the pressure and responsibility. However, aiming to relax himself, he made astonishing achievements in physics and thus revolutionized the field with five papers about spare time, which were of great impact on all over the world. Because of his supper intelligence and
11、 the contribution to the society, the United Nations declared 2005 as his miracle year. Whats more, his discoveries were attributable to his imagination, questioning, disregard constantly for authority, powers of concentration, and interest in science. In fact, he was not a space alien, but just a c
12、ommon person.Unit 5 Three Thank-You LettersThe passage mainly talked about the authors three special letters, by which he wanted to celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day 1943, as a young coastguardsman at sea, he worked as a cook. While he was going to think about Thanksgiv
13、ing, he came up with the idea of expressing his gratitude to people who had helped him before. Therefore, he wrote three thank-you letters to three persons, his father, the Rev. Nelson and his grandmother. At a mail call, he got three letters in reply, which drove him to think deeply. After he retir
14、ed from the Coast Guard, he still never forgot these letters which gave him an insight into expressing appreciation for ones efforts. Furthermore, he wished everyone to find the good and then praise it.Unit 6 The Last LeafThe passage mainly talked about the last leaf, which Johnsy gave a sight to af
15、ter she got the pneumonia and lived in the hospital. She looked out the window and counted the leaves on an old ivy vine. Furthermore, she made up her mind to end her life when the last leaf fell. When she saw the last leaf still cling to the vine after two nights rain and wind, she decided not to g
16、ive up her life. In fact, the last leaf, called a masterpiece by Behrman who risked his life painting it there the night that the last leaf fell, was actually painted onto the wall. However, because it looked so real that she could have never imagined that it was faked. In a deeper sense, it saved h
17、er life.unit 1 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeIn America many people have a romantic idea of life in the countryside. Many living in towns dream of starting up their own farm, of living off the land. Few get round to putting their dreams into practice. This is perhaps just as well, as the life of
18、a farmer is far from easy, as Jim Doherty discovered when he set out to combine being a writer with running a farm. Nevertheless, as he explains, he has no regrets and remains enthusiastic about his decision to change his way of life. 在美国，不少人对乡村生活怀有浪漫的情感。许多居住在城镇的人梦想着自己办个农场，梦想着靠土地为生。很少有人真去把梦想变为现实。或许这
19、也没有什么不好，因为，正如吉姆多尔蒂当初开始其写作和农场经营双重生涯时所体验到的那样，农耕生活远非轻松自在。但他写道，自己并不后悔，对自己作出的改变生活方式的决定仍热情不减。 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeJim Doherty 1 There are two things I have always wanted to do - write and live on a farm. Today Im doing both. I am not in E. B. Whites class as a writer or in my neighbors league
20、 as a farmer, but Im getting by. And after years of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country. 多尔蒂先生创建自己的理想生活 吉姆多尔蒂有两件事是我一直想做的写作与务农。如今我同时做着这两件事。作为作家，我和 EB怀特不属同一等级，作为农场主，我和乡邻也不是同一类人，不过我应付得还行。在城市以及郊区历经多年的怅惘失望之后，我和妻子桑迪终于在这里的乡村寻觅到心灵
21、的满足。2 Its a self-reliant sort of life. We grow nearly all of our fruits and vegetables. Our hens keep us in eggs, with several dozen left over to sell each week. Our bees provide us with honey, and we cut enough wood to just about make it through the heating season. 这是一种自力更生的生活。我们食用的果蔬几乎都是自己种的。自家饲养的
22、鸡提供鸡蛋，每星期还能剩余几十个出售。自家养殖的蜜蜂提供蜂蜜，我们还自己动手砍柴，足可供过冬取暖之用。3 Its a satisfying life too. In the summer we canoe on the river, go picnicking in the woods and take long bicycle rides. In the winter we ski and skate. We get excited about sunsets. We love the smell of the earth warming and the sound of cattle lo
23、wing. We watch for hawks in the sky and deer in the cornfields. 这也是一种令人满足的生活。夏日里我们在河上荡舟，在林子里野餐，骑着自行车长时间漫游。冬日里我们滑雪溜冰。我们为落日的余辉而激动。我们爱闻大地回暖的气息，爱听牛群哞叫。我们守着看鹰儿飞过上空，看玉米田间鹿群嬉跃。4 But the good life can get pretty tough. Three months ago when it was 30 below, we spent two miserable days hauling firewood up th
24、e river on a sled. Three months from now, it will be 95 above and we will be cultivating corn, weeding strawberries and killing chickens. Recently, Sandy and I had to retile the back roof. Soon Jim, 16 and Emily, 13, the youngest of our four children, will help me make some long-overdue improvements
25、 on the outdoor toilet that supplements our indoor plumbing when we are working outside. Later this month, well spray the orchard, paint the barn, plant the garden and clean the hen house before the new chicks arrive. 但如此美妙的生活有时会变得相当艰苦。就在三个月前，气温降到华氏零下 30 度，我们辛苦劳作了整整两天，用一个雪橇沿着河边拖运木柴。再过三个月，气温会升到 95 度，
26、我们就要给玉米松土，在草莓地除草，还要宰杀家禽。前一阵子我和桑迪不得不翻修后屋顶。过些时候，四个孩子中的两个小的，16 岁的吉米和 13 岁的埃米莉，会帮着我一起把拖了很久没修的室外厕所修葺一下，那是专为室外干活修建的。这个月晚些时候，我们要给果树喷洒药水，要油漆谷仓，要给菜园播种，要赶在新的小鸡运到之前清扫鸡舍。 5 In between such chores, I manage to spend 50 to 60 hours a week at the typewriter or doing reporting for the freelance articles I sell to m
27、agazines and newspapers. Sandy, meanwhile, pursues her own demanding schedule. Besides the usual household routine, she oversees the garden and beehives, bakes bread, cans and freezes, drives the kids to their music lessons, practices with them, takes organ lessons on her own, does research and typi
28、ng for me, writes an article herself now and then, tends the flower beds, stacks a little wood and delivers the eggs. There is, as the old saying goes, no rest for the wicked on a place like this - and not much for the virtuous either. 在这些活计之间，我每周要抽空花五、六十个小时，不是打字撰文，就是为作为自由撰稿人投给报刊的文章进行采访。桑迪则有她自己繁忙的工作
29、日程。除了日常的家务，她还照管菜园和蜂房，烘烤面包，将食品装罐、冷藏，开车送孩子学音乐，和他们一起练习，自己还要上风琴课，为我做些研究工作并打字，自己有时也写写文章，还要侍弄花圃，堆摞木柴、运送鸡蛋。正如老话说的那样，在这种情形之下，坏人不得闲贤德之人也歇不了。6 None of us will ever forget our first winter. We were buried under five feet of snow from December through March. While one storm after another blasted huge drifts up
30、against the house and barn, we kept warm inside burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute of it. 我们谁也不会忘记第一年的冬天。从 12 月一直到 3 月底，我们都被深达 5 英尺的积雪困着。暴风雪肆虐，一场接着一场，积雪厚厚地覆盖着屋子和谷仓，而室内，我们用自己砍伐的木柴烧火取暖，吃着自家种植的苹果，温馨快乐每一分钟。 7 When spring came, it brought two floods. First the river overf
31、lowed, covering much of our land for weeks. Then the growing season began, swamping us under wave after wave of produce. Our freezer filled up with cherries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, peas, beans and corn. Then our canned-goods shelves and cupboards began to grow with preserves, tomato j
32、uice, grape juice, plums, jams and jellies. Eventually, the basement floor disappeared under piles of potatoes, squash and pumpkins, and the barn began to fill with apples and pears. It was amazing. 开春后，有过两次泛滥。一次是河水外溢，我们不少田地被淹了几个星期。接着一次是生长季节到了，一波又一波的农产品潮涌而来，弄得我们应接不暇。我们的冰箱里塞满了樱桃、蓝莓、草莓、芦笋、豌豆、青豆和玉米。接着我
33、们存放食品罐的架子上、柜橱里也开始堆满一罐罐的腌渍食品，有番茄汁、葡萄汁、李子、果酱和果冻。最后，地窖里遍地是大堆大堆的土豆、西葫芦、南瓜，谷仓里也储满了苹果和梨。真是太美妙了。 8 The next year we grew even more food and managed to get through the winter on firewood that was mostly from our own trees and only 100 gallons of heating oil. At that point I began thinking seriously about qu
34、itting my job and starting to freelance. The timing was terrible. By then, Shawn and Amy, our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League schools and we had only a few thousand dollars in the bank. Yet we kept coming back to the same question: Will there ever be a better time? The answer, decid
35、edly, was no, and so - with my employers blessings and half a years pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket - off I went. 第二年我们种了更多的作物，差不多就靠着从自家树林砍斫的木柴以及仅仅 100 加仑的燃油过了冬。其时，我开始认真考虑起辞了职去从事自由撰稿的事来。时机选得实在太差。当时，两个大的女儿肖恩和埃米正在费用很高的常春藤学校上学，而我们只有几千美金的银行存款。但我们一再回到一个老问题上来：真的会有更好的时机吗？答案无疑是否定的。于是，带着老板的祝福，口袋里揣着作
36、为累积津贴的半年薪水，我走了。 9 There have been a few anxious moments since then, but on balance things have gone much better than we had any right to expect. For various stories of mine, Ive crawled into black-bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched up dogsled racing teams for Smithsonian magazine, checked out
37、 the Lake Champlain “monster“ for Science Digest, and canoed through the Boundary Waters wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations. 那以后有过一些焦虑的时刻，但总的来说，情况比我们料想的要好得多。为了写那些内容各不相同的文章，我为体育画报爬进过黑熊窝；为史密森期刊替参赛的一组组狗套上过雪橇；为科学文摘调查过尚普兰湖水怪的真相；为终点杂志在明尼苏达划着小舟穿越美、加边界水域内的公共荒野保护区。 10 Im not making anywhere near a
38、s much money as I did when I was employed full time, but now we dont need as much either. I generate enough income to handle our $600-a-month mortgage payments plus the usual expenses for a family like ours. That includes everything from music lessons and dental bills to car repairs and college cost
39、s. When it comes to insurance, we have a poor mans major-medical policy. We have to pay the first $500 of any medical fees for each member of the family. It picks up 80% of the costs beyond that. Although we are stuck with paying minor expenses, our premium is low - only $560 a year - and we are cov
40、ered against catastrophe. Aside from that and the policy on our two cars at $400 a year, we have no other insurance. But we are setting aside $2,000 a year in an IRA. 我挣的钱远比不上担任全职工作时的收入，可如今我们需要的钱也没有过去多。我挣的钱足以应付每月 600 美金的房屋贷款按揭以及一家人的日常开销。那些开销包括了所有支出，如音乐课学费、牙医账单、汽车维修以及大学费用等等。至于保险，我们买了一份低收入者的主要医疗项目保险。我
41、们需要为每一位家庭成员的任何一项医疗费用支付最初的 500 美金。医疗保险则支付超出部分的 80。虽然我们仍要支付小部分医疗费用，但我们的保险费也低-每年只要 560 美金-而我们给自己生大病保了险。除了这一保险项目，以及两辆汽车每年 400 美金的保险，我们就没有其他保险了。不过我们每年留出 2000 美元入个人退休金账户。 11 Weve been able to make up the difference in income by cutting back without appreciably lowering our standard of living. We continue
42、to dine out once or twice a month, but now we patronize local restaurants instead of more expensive places in the city. We still attend the opera and ballet in Milwaukee but only a few times a year. We eat less meat, drink cheaper wine and see fewer movies. Extravagant Christmases are a memory, and
43、we combine vacations with story assignments. 我们通过节约开支而又不明显降低生活水准的方式来弥补收入差额。我们每个月仍出去吃一两次饭，不过现在我们光顾的是当地餐馆，而不是城里的高级饭店。我们仍去密尔沃基听歌剧看芭蕾演出，不过一年才几次。我们肉吃得少了，酒喝得便宜了，电影看得少了。铺张的圣诞节成为一种回忆，我们把完成稿约作为度假的一部分 12 I suspect not everyone who loves the country would be happy living the way we do. It takes a couple of spe
44、cial qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude. Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we dont entertain much. During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily are involved in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home. 我想，不是所有热爱乡村的人
45、都会乐意过我们这种生活的。这种生活需要一些特殊的素质。其一是耐得住寂寞。由于我们如此忙碌，手头又紧，我们很少请客。在作物生长季节，根本就没工夫参加社交活动。吉米和埃米莉虽然参加学校的各种活动，但他俩大多数时间也呆在家里。 13 The other requirement is energy - a lot of it. The way to make self-sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor and other expensive laborsaving devices
46、. Instead, you do the work yourself. The only machinery we own (not counting the lawn mower) is a little three-horsepower rotary cultivator and a 16-inch chain saw. 另一项要求是体力相当大的体力。小范围里实现自给自足的途径是抵制诱惑，不去购置拖拉机和其他昂贵的节省劳力的机械。相反，你要自己动手。我们仅有的机器（不包括割草机）是一台 3 马力的小型旋转式耕耘机以及一架 16 英寸的链锯。 14 How much longer well
47、 have enough energy to stay on here is anybodys guess - perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, well leave with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what weve been able to accomplish. We should make a fair profit on the sale of the place, too. Weve invested abou
48、t $35,000 of our own money in it, and we could just about double that if we sold today. But this is not a good time to sell. Once economic conditions improve, however, demand for farms like ours should be strong again. 没人知道我们还能有精力在这里再呆多久-也许呆很长一阵子，也许不是。到走的时候，我们会怆然离去，但也会为自己所做的一切深感自豪。我们把农场出售也会赚相当大一笔钱。我
49、们自己在农场投入了约 35，000 美金的资金，要是现在售出的话价格差不多可以翻一倍。不过现在不是出售的好时机。但是一旦经济形势好转，对我们这种农场的需求又会增多。 15 We didnt move here primarily to earn money though. We came because we wanted to improve the quality of our lives. When I watch Emily collecting eggs in the evening, fishing with Jim on the river or enjoying an old-fashioned picnic in the orchard with the entire family, I know weve found just what we were looking for. 但我们主要不是为了赚钱而移居至此的。我们来此居住是因为想提高生活质量。当我看着埃米莉傍晚去收鸡蛋，跟吉米一起在河上钓鱼，或和全家人一起在果园里享用老式的野餐
