考博英语作文背诵经典（带翻译）之一

考博英语作文背诵经典（带翻译）之一

01 The Language of Music
A painter hangs his or her finished picture on a wall, and everyone can see
it. A composer writes a work, but no    one can hear it until it is performed.
Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for the   
composer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs as long and
as arduous a training to become a    performer as a medical student needs to
become a doctor. Most training is concerned with technique, for
musicians    have to have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a ballet
dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as    their vocal chords would
be inadequate without controlled muscular support. String players practice
moving the    fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the bow to
and fro with the right arm -- two entirely different movements.
Singers and instrumentalists have to be able to get every note perfectly in
tune. Pianists are spared this    particular anxiety, for the notes are
already there, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner's responsibility   
to tune the instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties: the
hammers that hit the strings have to be   coaxed not to sound
like percussion, and each overlapping tone has to sound clear.
This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student
conductors: they have to learn to know every    note of the music and how it
should sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sounds with
fanatical but    selfless authority.
Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge
and understanding. Great artists are those who    are so thoroughly at home in
the language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in any
century.
01 音乐的语言
画家将已完成的作品挂在墙上，每个人都可以观赏到。 作曲家写完了一部作品，得由
演奏者将其演奏出来，其他人才能得以欣赏。因为作曲家是如此完全地依赖于职业歌手和职 业演奏者，所以职业歌手和职业演奏者肩上的担子可谓不轻。
一名学音乐的学生要想成为 一名演奏者，需要经受长期的、严格的训练，就象一名医科的学生要成为一名医生一样。 绝 大多数的训练是技巧性的。
音乐家们控制肌肉的熟练程度，必须达到与运动员或巴蕾舞演 员相当的水平。 歌手们每天都练习吊嗓子，因为如果不能有效地控制肌肉的话，他们的声
带将不能满足演唱的要求。 弦乐器的演奏者练习的则是在左手的手指上下滑动的同时，用
右手前后拉动琴弓--两个截然不同的动作。歌手和乐器演奏者必须使所有的音符完全相同协 调。 钢琴家们则不用操这份心，因为每个音符都已在那里等待着他们了。
给钢琴调音是调 音师的职责。 但调音师们也有他们的难处： 他们必须耐心地调理敲击琴弦的音锤，不能让
音锤发出的声音象是打击乐器，而且每个交叠的音都必须要清晰。如何得到乐章清晰的纹理
是学生指挥们所面临的难题：他们必须学会了解音乐中的每一个音及其发音之道。 他们还
必须致力于以热忱而又客观的权威去控制这些音符。除非是和音乐方面的知识和悟性结合起 来，单纯的技巧没有任何用处。
艺术家之所以伟大在于他们对音乐语言驾轻就熟，以致于 可以满怀喜悦地演出写于任何时代的作品。
>02 Schooling and Education
It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where people
go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today
children interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction
between schooling and    education implied by this remark is important.
Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling.
Education knows no bounds. It can take place    anywhere, whether in the
shower or in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes
both the formal    learning that takes place in schools and the whole
universe of informal learning. The agents of education can range from a
revered grandparent to the

people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished
scientist.
Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education quite often
produces surprises. A chance conversation    with a stranger may lead a person
to discover how little is known of other religions. People are engaged in   
education from infancy on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive
term. It is a lifelong process, a process    that starts long before the start
of school, and one that should be an integral part of one's entire life.
Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose
general pattern varies little   from   one    setting to the next.
Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately
the same time, take assigned    seats, are taught by an adult, use similar
textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on. The slices of reality    that
are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the
workings of government, have    usually been limited by the boundaries of the
subject being taught. For example, high school students know that    they are
not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems
in their communities or what    the newest filmmakers are experimenting with.
There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of   
schooling.
上学与受教育
在美国，人们通常认为上学是为了受教育。 而现在却有人认为孩子们上学打断了他们 受教育的过程。 这种观念中的上学与受教育之间的区别非常重要。
与上学相比，教育更具 开放性，内容更广泛。 教育不受任何限制。 它可以在任何场合下进行，在淋浴时，在工作 时，在厨房里或拖拉机上。
它既包括在学校所受的正规教育，也包括一切非正规教育。 传 授知识的人可以是德高望重的老者，可以是收音机里进行政治辩论的人们，可以是小孩子，
也可以是知名的科学家。 上学读书多少有点可预见性，而教育往往能带来意外的发现。 与 陌生人的一次随意谈话可能会使人认识到自己对其它宗教其实所知甚少。
人们从幼时起就 开始受教育。 因此，教育是一个内涵很丰富的词，它自始至终伴随人的一生，早在人们上 学之前就开始了。
教育应成为人生命中不可缺少的一部分。然而，上学却是一个特定的形 式化了的过程。 在不同场合下，它的基本形式大同小异。 在全国各地，孩子们几乎在同一
时刻到达学校，坐在指定的座位上，由一位成年人传授知识，使用大致相同的教材，做作业， 考试等等。
他们所学的现实生活中的一些片断，如字母表或政府的运作，往往受到科目范 围的限制。
例如，高中生们知道，在课堂上他们没法弄清楚他们社区里政治问题的真情， 也不会了解到最新潮的电影制片人在做哪些尝试。
学校教育这一形式化的过程是有特定的 限制的。
>03 The Definition of "Price"
Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means by
which products and services that are in    limited supply are rationed among
buyers. The price system of the United States is a complex network composed
of    the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as
well as those of a myriad of services, including   labor,
professional, transportation, and public-utility services. The
interrelationships of all these prices make    up the
"system" of prices. The price of any particular product or service is
linked to a broad, complicated system of prices in which everything seems
to depend more or less upon everything else.    If one were to ask a group
of randomly selected individuals to define "price", many would reply that
price is an    amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller of a product or
service or,    in other words, that price is the    money value of a
product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction. This
definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For a complete
understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much more than
the amount    of money involved must be known. Both the buyer and the seller
should be familiar with not only the money amount,    but with the amount and
quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at
which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of
money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply    to the
transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, return
privileges, and other factors. In    other words, both buyer and seller should
be fully aware of all the factors that comprise the total "package"    being
exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may
evaluate a given price.
"价格"的定义 价格决定资源的使用方式。 价格也是有限的产品与服务在买方中的配给 手段。
美国的价格系统是复杂的网状系统，包括经济生活中一切产品买卖的价格，也包括 名目繁多的各种服务，诸如劳动力、专职人员、交通运输、公共事业等服务的价格。
所有 这些价格的内在联系构成了价格系统。 任何一种个别产品或服务的价格都与这个庞大而复
杂的系统密切相关，而且或多或少地受到系统中其它成份的制约。如果随机挑选一群人，问
问他们如何定义"价格"，许多人会回答价格就是根据卖方提供的产品或服务，买方向其付出 的钱数。
换句话说，价格就是市场交易中大家认同的产品或服务的货币量。 该定义就其本 身来说自有其道理。
但要获得对价格在任何一桩交易中的完整认识，就必须考虑到大量" 非货币"因素的影响。 买卖双方不但要清楚交易中的钱数，而且要非常熟悉交易物的质量和
数量，交易的时间、地点，采用哪种形式付款，有怎样的缓付和优惠，对交易物的质量保证、 交货条款、退赔权利等等。
也就是说，为了能估算索价，买卖双方必须通晓构成交易物价 格的通盘细节。
>04 Electricity
The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric
lights, radio, televisions, and telephones    that it is hard to imagine what
life would be like without them. When there is a power failure, people
grope about    in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the streets because
there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent
refrigerators.

Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a little more
than two centuries
ago. Nature has    apparently been experimenting in this field for millions of
years. Scientists are discovering more and more that    the living world may
hold many interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity.
All living cells send out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats,
it sends out pulses of record; they form    an electrocardiogram, which a
doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working. The brain,
too, sends    out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an
electroencephalogram. The electric currents generated    by most living
cells are extremely small -- often so small that sensitive instruments are
needed to record them.    But in some animals, certain muscle cells have
become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as
muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cells are linked
together, the effects can be astonishing.
The electric eel is an amazing storage battery. It can send a jolt of as
much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it
lives. (An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.) As
many as    four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel's body are
specialized for generating electricity, and the    strength of the shock it
can deliver corresponds roughly to the length of its body.
电 当今时代是电气时代。 人们对电灯、收音机、电视和电话早已司空见惯以致很难想 象没有它们生活会变成什么样。
当停电时，人们在摇曳不定的烛光下暗中摸索； 因没有红 绿灯的指示，汽车在道路上迟疑不前；冰箱也停止工作，导致食物变质。人们只是在两个世
纪前一点才开始了解电的使用原理，自然界却显然在这方面经历过了数百万年。 科学家不
断发现许多生物世界里可能有益于人类的关于电的有趣秘密。所有生物细胞都会发出微小的 电脉冲。
当心脏跳动时，把它发出的脉冲记录下来就成了心电图，这可让医生了解心脏的 工作状况。大脑也发出脑电波，这可在脑电图上记录下来。
许多生物细胞发出的电流都是 极微小的，小到要用灵敏仪器才能记录和测量。 但一些动物的某些肌肉细胞能转化成一个 个发电机，以致完全失去肌肉细胞的功能。
这种细胞大量地连接在一起时产生的效果将是 非常令人吃惊的。电鳗就是一种令人惊异的蓄电池。 它可以在水中发出相当于 800 伏特电
压电流(家庭用户的电压只有 120 伏特)。 在电鳗的身体里，多至五分之四的细胞都专门用 来发电，而且发出的电流的强度大约和它身体的长度成正比。