十大必備英語(yǔ)段子

1、1. 000139 文科段子:藝術(shù)類音樂(lè)It may seem strange that we're discussing music from a Broadway production in this class, "The Lion King" especially, since it's based on a popular Hollywood movie. I mean music preformed for Broadway theater in the heart of New York city surely would seem to be

2、 in the western tradition of popular music and not have much in common with the music we have been studying in this course, such as gamelan music of Indonesia, or Zulu chants of South Africa, music that developed outside the western tradition of Europe and America. But in fact, musicians have a long

3、-standing tradition of borrowing front one another's cultures. And this production's director intentionally included both western andnon-western music. That way, some of the rhythms, instrument, and harmonies typical of non-western music contrast with and complement popular music more famili

4、ar to audiences in North America and Europe, music like rock, jazz or Broadway style show tunes. So I want to spend the rest of this class and most of the next one on the music from the show "The Lion King" as a way of summarizing some of the technical distinctions between typical western

5、music and the non-western music that we've been studying. Now the African influence on the music is clear. The story takes place in Africa. So the director got a South African composer to write songs with a distinctly African sound. And the songs even include words from African languages. But we

6、'll get back to the African influence later. First let's turn to the music that was written for the shadow puppet scenes in "The Lion King", music based on the Indonesian music used in the shadow puppet theater of that region2. 000143 理科段子:天文學(xué)In ancient times, many people believed

7、the earth was a flat disc. Well over 2,000 years ago; the ancient Greek philosophers were able to put forward two good arguments proving that it was not. Direct observations of heavenly bodies were the basis of both these arguments. First, the Greeks knew that during eclipses of the moon the earth w

8、as between the sun and the moon, and they saw that during these eclipses, the earth's shadow on the moon was always round, they realizedthat this could be true only if the earth was spherical, It the earth was a flat disc, then its shadow during eclipses would not be a prefect circle; it would b

9、e stretched out into a long ellipse. The second argument was based on what the Greeks saw during their travels. They noticed that the North Star, or Polaris, appeared lower in the sky when they traveled south, in the more northerly regions, the North Star appeared to them to be much higher in the sk

10、y. By the way, it was also from this difference in the apparent position of the North Star that the Greeks first calculated the approximate distance around the circumference of the earth, a figure recorded in ancient documents says 400.000 stadium, that's the plural of the world stadium. Today,

11、it's not known exactly what length one stadium represents, but let's say it was about 200 meters, the length of many athletic stadiums. This would make the Greek's estimate about twice the figure accepted today, a very good estimate for those writing so long before even the first telesco

12、pe was invented.3. 991044 文科段子:文學(xué)名著Continuing our survey of the 19th century, let's take a look now at Harriet Beecher Stowe. Now Stowe is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that details the harshness of plantation life in the south. The book was extremely popular in the Unit

13、ed States as well as in other countries. Ironically though, for all the attention given to Uncle Tom's Cabin, it's far from Stowe's best work. She did write one other novel about life in the south, but much of her best work has nothing with the south at all. In fact, Stowe's best wri

14、ting is about village life in the New England's states in the 19th century. In recording to the customs of the villages she wrote about, Stowe claimed that her purpose was to reflect the images as realistically as possible. She usually succeeded, for her settings were often described accurately

15、and in detail. In this sense, she was an important forerunner to the realistic movement that became popular later in the 19th century. She was one of the first writers to use local dialect for her characters whenthey spoke. And she did this for 30 years before Mark Twain popularized the use of local

16、 dialect. It makes sense that Stowe would write about New England life, since she was born in Connecticut. As a young woman there, she worked as a teacher. The teaching job helped lead to her first published work, a geography book for children. Later when she was married, her writing helped her supp

17、ort her family financially. Throughout her life, she wrote poems, travel books, biographical sketches and children's books, as well as novels for adults.4. 991040 生活段子:噪音影響I'm grad to see so many of you here. We've become really alarmed over the health center by the number of students we

18、 are seeing, who are experiencing hearing loss. First, I want to go over some basic about hearing. Then we can take a look at our school environment and see if we can figure out some ways to protect hearing. The leading cause of preventable hearing loss is excessive noise. Too much moderate noise fo

19、r a long time or some types of intense noise for even a short time can damage hearing. Loudness is measured in units called decibels. One decibel is the lowest sound that the average person can here. Sounds up to 80 decibels generally aren't harmful. That's noise like traffic on a busy stree

20、t. But anything louder than 80 decibels, especially with continuous exposure, may eventually hurt your hearing. Once you are up to around 140 decibels, that's like a jet plane taking off, then you might even feel pain in your ears. And pains are sure sign that your hearing's at risk. Even on

21、e exposure to a really loud noise at close range can cause hearing loss. So what you need to do is limit your exposure to harmful levels. If you pass along this handout, we can take a look at the decibel level of some common campus sounds. Notice how loud those horns are that people take to football

22、 games. They are really dangerous if blown right behind you. Now, let's try to generate a list of damaging noises5. 990839 文科段子:電影藝術(shù)To get us started this semester I am going to spend the first two classes giving you background lectures about some basic cinematic concepts. Once you are a little

23、more familiar with basic film terminology, we will be ready to look at the history of movies in the United States. You'll be expected to attend showing of films on Tuesday evenings at 7 o'clock in Jennings Auditorium. That's our lab. Then during our Wednesday seminar, we'll discuss i

24、n depth the movie we saw the night before. We are not covering silent films in this course. We will begin with the first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. The next week, we'll be looking at The Gold Diggers of 1933, a piece that is very representative of the escapist tre

25、nd in films released during the depression. Some of the films we will be watching will probably be new to you, like Frank Capra's Why We Fight. Others you might have already seen on TV like Rebel without A Cause starring James Deane, or Stanley Cooper's Doctor's Strange Love. However, I

26、hope you see even familiar film with new eye. In the last three weeks of the course, we will be watching films from the 1980s and you'll choose one of them as a subject for an extensive written critique. We'll talk more about the requirements of the critique later in this semester6. 990848 文

27、科段子:歷史發(fā)展Last time, we outlined how the Civil War finally got started. I want to talk today about the political management of the war on both sides: the north under Abraham Lincoln and the south under Jefferson Davis. An important task for both of these presidents was to justify for their citizens ju

28、st why the war was necessary. In 1861, on July 4th, Lincoln gave his first major speech in which he presented the northern reasons for the war. It was, he said, to preserve democracy. Lincoln suggested that this war was a noble crusade that would determine the future of democracy through out the wor

29、ld. For him the issue was whether or not this government of the people, by the people could maintain itsintegrity, could it remain complete and survive its domestic foes. In other words, could a few discontented individuals and by that he meant those who led the southern rebellion, could they arbitr

30、arily break up the government and put an end to free government on earth? The only way for the nation to survive was to crush the rebellion. At the time, he was hopeful that the war wouldn't last long and the slave owners would be put down forever, but he underestimated how difficult the war wou

31、ld be. It would be harder than any the Americans had thought before or since, largely because the north had to break the will of the southern people, not just by its army. But Lincoln rallied northerners to a deep commitment to the cause. They came to perceive the war as a kind of democratic crusade

32、 against southern society.7. 981042 文科段子:傳媒變遷Moving away from newspapers, let's now focus on magazines. Now the first magazine was a little periodical called the Review and it was started in London in 1704. It looked a lot like the newspapers of the time, but in terms of its contents it was much

33、 different. Newspapers were concerned mainly with news events but the Review focused on important domestic issues of the day, as well as the policies of the government. Now, in England at the time, people could still be thrown in jail for publishing articles that were critical of the king. And that

34、is what happened to Daniel Defoe. He was the outspoken founder of the review. Defoe actually wrote the first issue of the Review from prison. You see, he had been arrested because of his writings that criticized the policies of the Church of England, which was headed by the king. After his release,

35、Defoe continued to produce the Review and the magazine started to appear on a more frequent schedule, about three times a week. It didn't take long for other magazines to start popping up. In 1709, a magazine called the Tattler began publication. This new magazine contained a mixture of news, po

36、etry, political analysis and philosophical essays.8. 971035 理科段子:遠(yuǎn)程教育Hi, Lynn. I saw you at registration yesterday. I sailed right through, but you were standing in a long line. Yeah. I waited an hour to sign up for a distance-learning course. Distance learning? Never heard of it. Well, it's new

37、 this semester. It's only open to psychology majors. But I bet it'll catch on else where. Yesterday, over a hundred students signed up. Well, what is it? It's an experimental course. I registered for child psychology. All I have got to do is watch a twelve-week series of televised lesson

38、s. The department shows them seven different times a day and in seven different locations. Don't you ever have to meet with professor? Yeah. After each part of the series I have to talk to her and the other students on the phone, you know, about our ideas. Then we'll meet on campus three tim

39、es for reviews and exams. It sounds pretty non-traditional to me. But I guess it makes sense, considering how many students have jobs. It must really help with their schedules, not to mention how it will cut down on traffic. You know, last year my department did a survey and they found out that 80 p

40、ercent of all psychology majors were employed. That's why they came up with the program. Look, I'll be working three days a week next semester and it was either cut back on my classes or try this out. The only thing is: doesn't it seem impersonal though? I mean, I miss having class discu

41、ssions and hearing what other people think. Well, I guess that's why phone contact's important. Any way, it's an experiment. Maybe I'll end up hating it. Maybe. But I'll be curious to see how it works up. 9. 970539 生活段子：游覽沼澤地公園 Welcome to Everglade's National Park. The Evergl

42、ade is a watery plain covered with saw grass that's the home to numerous species of plants and wild life. And one and half million acre is too big to see it all today. But this tour will offer you a good sampling. Our tour bus will stop first at Tailor Slue. This is a good place to start because

43、 it's home to many of the plants and animals typically associated with the everglade. You'll see many exotic birds and of course a world famous alligators. Don't worry. There's a boardwalk that goes across the marsh, so you can look down at the animals in the water from a safe distan

44、ce. The boardwalk is high enough to give you a great view of the saw grass prairie. From there we'll head at some other marshy and even jungle-like areas that feature wonderful tropical plant life. For those of you who'd like a close view of the saw grass prairie, you might consider running

45、a canoe sometime during your visit here. However, don't do this unless you have a very good sense of direction and can negotiate your way through tall grass. We hate to have to come looking for you. You have a good fortune of being here in the winter, the best time of the year to visit. During the spring and summer the mosquitoes will just about to eat you alive. Right now, they are not so bothersome, but you'll soon want to use an insect repellent. 10. 000147 理科段子：地理冒險(xiǎn) Good morning, class. Before we begin today, I