TEXT I
Unit One
VESUVIUS ERUPTS
II. Rewrite the following
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as close in meaning as possible to the original sentence by using the given words as the beginning.
1. We were followed by a panic-stricken mob of people wanting to act on someone else?s decision in preference to their own, who hurried us on our way by pressing hard behind in a dense crowd.
Panic-stricken, the mob of people close behind us ___________ _ 2. We replied that we would not think of considering our own safety as long as we were uncertain of his.
Unless we were ___________________________________ 3. There were people, too, who added to the real perils by inventing fictitious dangers: some reported that part of Misenum had collapsed or another part was on fire, and though their tales were false they found others to believe them.
By reporting that part of Misenum had collapsed or another part was on fire, _______ 4. I could boast that not a groan or cry of fear escaped me in these perils, had I not derived some poor consolation in my mortal lot from the belief that the whole world was dying with me and I with it.
Because I derived some poor consolation_____________________ 5. Several hysterical individuals made their own and other people?s calamities seem ludicrous in comparison with their frightful predictions.
Compared with several individuals? frightful predictions, the calamities____________
III. Translate the following into English 1. 还未等我们坐下来喘息，夜幕已经降临，这黑暗使你觉得不是在无月色或多云的夜晚，而像是在灯火熄灭的紧闭的房间里。你到处都可以听到女人惊慌的尖叫，幼童的嚎啕，以及男人不安的叫喊。人们有的呼喊它们的父母，有的呼喊他们的妻儿，试图通过声音来辨认出自己的亲人；有的人悲叹自己和亲人的厄运，有的则在面临死亡的恐惧中祈求死神给他以解脱。许多人企盼神灵的帮助，但更多的人则认为这世界根本不存在神灵——宇宙再次陷入了永恒的黑暗之中。
2. 一远离了建筑物，我们就停了下来。在那里，我们遇到了一些不寻常的事情，令我们恐慌不已。我们叫来的几辆马车还未被带出来就开始四处乱窜，尽管地面平坦，又用石块楔，马车还是停不下来。我们还看到地震使海水猛然退下去，然后又明显地涌回来，总之海水从岸上退下去导致了大量的海洋生物搁浅在干沙上，白白等死。在朝着陆地的方向，一片黑压压的乌云被颤动着的烈焰撕开，露出几条巨大的火舌，看上去就像几道放大了的闪电。
3. 到处笼罩着一片恐惧的气氛，因为余震尚未停止，而且有些情绪失控的人在散布一些可怕的预言，与他们的预言相比，她们自己的灾难和其他人的灾难显得非常荒唐可笑。但即使是在那时，尽管我们已经经历过那些危险的遭遇，尚且还有可能再次经历这些危险，母亲和我在知道舅舅的下落之前仍不打算离开。
4. 最后，黑暗消散成为烟云，接着迎来了真正的阳光，太阳真的出来的，但它周围的圆晕使它显得像是在发生日食。看到所有的东西都变了样，被深深地埋在废墟和火山灰里，我们吓了一跳。我们返回迈斯林，尽力去满足自己的生理需求，然后怀着希望和恐慌的心情度过了一个焦虑的夜晚。5. 现在已是破晓时分（公元78年8月25日），天色依然昏暗。我们周围的建筑物已经摇摇欲坠，我们所在的空地太小了，所以万一房子倒塌的话，我们就会遭受没顶之灾。这促使我们终于决定离开这个小镇。我们后面跟着一大群惊慌失措的难民，他们完全没了自己的主意，只好随波逐流。（在这种情况下恐惧貌似谨慎）这一大群密密麻麻的人拼命往前挤，我们只好加快步伐逃生。
IV. Cloze
Complete each of the words with initial letters given in the following:
By now it was dawn [25 August in the year 79], but the light was still dim and faint. The buildings (1)r us were already tottering, and the open (2)s we were in was too small
for us (3)n to be in real and imminent (4)d if the house collapsed. This (5)f decided us to leave the town. We were (6)f by a panic- stricken mob of people wanting to (7)a on someone else?s decision in (8)p to their own (a point in (9)w fear looks like prudence), who hurried us on our way by (10)p hard behind in a dense crowd.
Once beyond the buildings we stopped, and there we had some extraordinary experiences (11)w thoroughly alarmed us. The carriages we had ordered to be brought out began to run in (12)d directions though the (13)g was quite level, and would not remain stationary even when wedged (14)w stones. We also saw the sea sucked (15)a and apparently forced back by the earthquake: at any rate it receded (16)f the shore so that
quantities of sea (17)c were left stranded on dry sand. On the landward side a (18)f black cloud was rent by forked and quivering (19)b of flame, and parted to reveal (20)g tongues of fire, like flashes of lightning magnified in size.
V. Proofreading
1
We had scarcely sat down to rest when darkness fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had 1.been put out in a close room. You could hear the shrieks of 1. 2.women, the wailing of infants, the shouting of men; some 2. 3.were calling for their parents, others their children or their 3. 4.wives, tried to recognize them by their voices. People 4. 5.bewailed for their own fate or that of their relatives, and 5. 6.there were some who prayed for death in their terror of 6. 7.dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more 7. 8.imagined that there were no gods left, and that the universe 8. 9.was plunged into an eternal darkness forevermore. There 9. 10.were people, too, who added the real perils by inventing 10. fictitious dangers. At last the darkness thinned and dispersed into 1.smoke or cloud; then there was a genuine daylight, and 1. 2.the sun actually shone out, but yellowish as it was during 2. 3.an eclipse. We were terrified to see everything change, 3. 4.buried deep in ashes like snowdrifts. We returned to 4. 5.Misenum where we attended our physical needs as best 5. 6.we could, and then spent an eager night alternating 6. 7.between hope and fear. Fear predominated, for the 7. 8.earthquakes yet went on, and several hysterical 8. 9.individuals made their own and other people?s calamities 9. seem ludicrous in comparison with their frightful 10.predictions. But even then, in spite the dangers we had 10. been through and were still expecting, my mother and I had still no intention of leaving until we had news of my uncle. Text II
Rewrite the following
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as close in meaning as possible to the original sentence by using the given words as the beginning.
1. The major land masses and the ocean basins are today much as they have been throughout the greater part of geologic time.
The major land masses and the ocean basins have not______________________ _ 2. With few exceptions, islands are the results of the violent, explosive, earth-shaking eruptions of submarine volcanoes, working perhaps for millions of years to achieve their end.
Almost all islands result_____________________________________________ __ 2
3. It is one of the paradoxes in the ways of earth and sea that a process seemingly so destructive, so catastrophic in nature, can result in an act of creation.
An act of creation can result from such____________________________________ 4. Whether the destruction of an island comes quickly or only after long ages of geological time may also depend on external forces.
An island may be destroyed quickly or only after long ages of geological time, _______ 5. The birth of a volcanic island is an event marked by prolonged and violent travail.
It takes prolonged and violent travail______________________________________
TEXT I
Unit Two
THE FINE ART OF PUTTING THINGS OFF
II. Rewrite the following
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as close in meaning as possible to the original sentence by using the given words as the beginning.
1. That the elegant earl never got around to marrying his son?s mother and had a bad habit of keeping worthies like Dr. Johnson cooling their heels for hours in an anteroom attests to the fact that even the most well-intentioned men have been postponers ever.
The fact that even the most well-intentioned men have been postponers ever can be testified _____________________________ 2. Moses pleaded a speech defect to rationalize his reluctance to deliver Jehovah?s edict to Pharaoh.
By saying that he had a speech defect, _____________________ 3. Yet for all the trouble procrastination may incur, delay can often inspire and revive a creative soul.
Although procrastination may____________________________ 4. Bureaucratization, which flourished amid the growing burdens of government and the greater complexity of society, was designed to smother the policy-makers in blankets of legalism, compromise and reappraisal.
The design of bureaucratization, which_____________________ 5. There is a long and honorable history of procrastination to suggest that many ideas and decisions may well improve if postponed.
Procrastination has been honored________________________
III. Translate the following into English
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1.事实上，拖延这种现象的漫长而骄人的历史本身就已经表明，许多构想和决定如果加以推迟可能会更为圆满。推迟做出决定其本身就是一个决定，这是一个自明之理。议会的办事程序，就其本质而言，就是包含了拖延与深思的一种办事制度。就此而言，这种现象同样可见于一幅油画杰作的创作，一碟菜肴的烹饪，或是一本书的编写，也可见于象布伦海姆宫这样的大楼的建造。这项工程花费了莫尔巴勒公爵手下众多建筑师和劳工整整15年的时间。
2. 他的见解很有道理。在政府机构日益臃肿，社会结构日益复杂的情况下，繁琐拖拉的办事程序不断复杂，使决策者们忙于应付各种条条框框，左右全行，再三考虑，被繁琐的事务压得喘不过气来，也就无法仓促地做出决定。导致水门事件的政府集权化管理已经波及经济和其他部门，使拖延成为全世界的生活方式。许多语言中，都充满表示拖延的词语——从西班牙语中的Ma?ena到阿拉伯语中的bukrafilmishmish（文字上是“明日之杏”的意思，指的是“留待和暖的春季杏花盛开时才去做”）
3. 在拖延的过程中，设计可以达到尽善尽美。事实上，欲速则不达。正如《石中剑》的作者T·H怀特所说：“时间并非是要在一小时或一天内被匆匆吞没，而是要在不急不忙的细细品味中，一点一滴地被逐步消化。”
换句话说，尊敬的切斯得菲尔得伯爵，您今天不一定要做的事，尽管拖到明天吧。 4. “今天要做事决不要拖到明天，”切斯得菲尔得勋爵在1949年曾经如此劝诫人们。但是，这位举止优雅的伯爵却从来没有安排好时间娶他儿子的母亲。此外，他还有个坏习惯：老是让像约翰逊博士这样的贵客在他的接待室里等上几小时。这证明，即使是最有善意的人也曾经是个拖延者。
5. 尽管拖延会带来很多麻烦，但是推迟往往能使人获得灵感并重新焕发想象力。珍·凯尔是一位曾经创作了许多优秀小说和戏剧的女作家。她说，她总是习惯于把厨房里的所有糖罐头和奖品上的商品标签细读一遍才坐到打字机前开始写作。 IV. Cloze
“Never (1)p off till tomorrow,” exhorted (2)L Chesterfield in 1749, “(3)w____ you can do today.” (4)T the elegant earl never got (5)a to marrying his son?s mother and had a bad (6)h of keeping worthies (7)l Dr. Johnson cooling their (8)h for hours in an anteroom attests to the (9)f that even the most well-intentioned men (10)h been postponers ever.
His point is well taken. Bureaucratization, (11)w flourished amid the growing (12)b of government and the greater complexity of society, was designed to smother (13)p in blankets of legalism, compromise and reappraisal --- and thereby (14)p_____ hasty decisions from being made. The centralization of government (15)t led to Watergate has spread to economic institutions and beyond, (16)m procrastination a worldwide (17)w of life. Many languages are studded with phrases that refer to (18)p_____ things off ---(19)f the Spanish maiana to the Arabic bukrafil mishmish (literally “tomorrow in apricots, “ more loosely “leave it for the soft spring weather (20)w____ the apricots are blooming”).
V. Proofreading: In fact, there is a long and honorable history of procrastination to suggest that many ideas and decisions may well improve if they are postponed. It is something of 1.truism that to put off making a decision is itself a 1. 4