公共英语三级阅读文章《植物学》

　　人类文明是从植物学开始的，比如种地，植物学一开始就是面向生物的营养与健康的。植物学是生物学的分支学科。下面，小编为大家送上一篇公共英语三级阅读文章，我们一起走进植物学的世界。

公共英语三级阅读文章《植物学》

　　Botany

　　Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest of insights. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of preindustrial societies that still exist a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge"at all.

　　Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10, 000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild - and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.

　　植物学

　　植物学，即对植物的研究，在人类知识的历史中占据了特殊的地位。这是人类几千年来超越模糊的认知而真正有所了解的领域之一。我们今天不可能知道新石器时代的祖先们对植物到底了解多少，但我们在至今仍存在的前工业化社会观察到：人类对植物及其特性的详细了解应该是非常古老的。这是理所当然的。植物是其他生物甚至其他植物食物金字塔的基础。它们对人们的生活至关重要，不仅在食物上，而且在衣物、武器、工具、染料、药物、住所和许许多多其他的用途上。至今仍生活在亚马逊河丛林中的部落确实能够辨识几百种植物并知道每一种的许多特性。对他们来说，植物学没有专门的名称，甚至可能根本未被认为是一种专门知识。

　　不幸的是，工业化的程度越高，我们距直接与植物接触就越远，我们的植物学知识的增加也就越微不足道。然而每个人在不知不觉中拥有大量的植物学知识，很少有人认不出玫瑰、苹果或兰花。大约一万年前居住在中东的新时代的祖先们发现某些草能被收获，它们的种子下一季耕种会收获更多时，人类就迈出了人和植物之间的新关系第一大步。谷子被发现后，农业的奇迹从此诞生：这就是可栽培的谷物。从那时起，人类越来越依赖少数可控制的作物生存，而不再是从众多的野生种类中这里获取一点，那里获取一点。这样在千万年中对于野生植物的经验和密切联系中积累起来的知识就开始消失了。

　　附：公共英语三级阅读技巧之如何做释义性的题目

　　所谓释义性的题目，就是要求对文章中阐述的事物进行准确的解释。问题往往问该事物的特征、优点、功能、作用等，如

　　The main characteristics of the system is _________.

　　One of the advantages of living in the countryside is _________.

　　这类问题在阅读理解的'题目中占较大的比例。因为，阅读理解的文章大多是说明文体裁。说明文就是对事物解释，定义。文章用较大的篇幅来解释，答案项要么是对这些解释的另一说法，要么是对这些解释的归纳。

　　这类问题虽属细节题，但不容易做。有两点要注意。

　　1.注意解释的准确性

　　干扰项往往在对文章事物的解释中，夹带"私货：，加进一些词，夸大了原文的意义，作了不合事实的引伸。

　　这就告诉我们，在辨别信息时，对一些对原文解释、归纳的选项，要注意其释义的准确性。特别要当心在解释时加进一些修饰词，如mainly，chiefly，whenever，Only等，使原文的意思发生细微的变化。因此有这些词的选项，多半是错误的。

　　2.注意归纳的准确性来源：

　　大多问的是事物的主要特点、特征、功能，干扰项却把次要的、细节性的东西，具体事实混进选项。

　　这告诉我们，在做释义题，辨别选项时，要注意区分细节和结论，事实和观点。问归纳性的结论，观点时不要把具体的细节，事实套上去。

　　拓展：公共英语三级阅读材料精选

　　第七部份：Dialogues /monologues:

　　1、 Cooking at table side has always been part of traditional haute cuisine, or art of cooking.

　　注意的词语：art of cooking:烹饪术，例：art of defense: 武术。

　　2、 I’m a very cook.

　　翻译为：我是一个绝对的厨师。

　　3、 Stir the mixture until it leaves sides of the bowl.

　　翻译为：与碗边脱离，即不沾碗边。引申义：就是要求充分搅匀.

　　4、 Roll the crust mixture into a round shape.

　　注意的词语：roll into: 卷成, 使合为一体。

　　翻译为：将外面的蛋糕皮混合物卷成一团。

　　5、 Yes, the apple pie is ready to serve.

　　注意的词语：be ready to: 预备, 即将

　　翻译为：是的，苹果派可以预备用了。

　　练习:

　　What should be more French than an outdoor market on a sunny Sunday morning? The air is filled with vital fragrances from the fruits and vegetables piled high in the greengrocers’ creative layouts. A trace of the Atlantic blows off the shellfish on the fishmonger’s bed of ice.

　　This, you think, is the very essence of France, until read those little signs that tell you the tomatoes (which are really pretty tasteless) come from Moroccan hothouses, the grapes from South Africa, and the kiwis from Chile.

　　For generations, the French have prided themselves on their distinctiveness. Nothing has stood for France’s sense of exceptionalism more famously than its cooking. Gallic talent, taste and techniques have been exported all over the world. And therein lies part of the problem. From the Thames to Tokyo, non-French cooks have cracked the codes of the best French cuisine. Meanwhile, what was mediocre elsewhere has been imported. (Believe it or not, one restaurant associate with a famous Paris chef serves steak with a sauce that’s indistinguishable from the stuff on a Big Mac.) The result: many tourists—as well as the French themselves—no longer see what’s so special about French cooking.

　　The decline goes well beyond recent surveys that show growing complaints about mediocre quality and high prices. More and more restaurants-owners say that government tax and economic policies are limiting their profits, and thereby hurting their capacity to invest and hire more staff. They have got stuck in the red tape for which France is infamous—not to mention regulations from Brussels that affect everything from sales taxes to the bacteria in the Brie cheese. Many warn that expanding the European Union to the east will hurt small French farmers, who remain the backbone of traditional cuisine—and, hence French identity: Unfortunately for the French, there are few reassuring answers to these questions.

　　France’s problem isn’t the lack of creativity, but rather an unfavorable political environmentfor creativity. If you’re choked by bureaucracy and taxes, as so much of France is, “there is not much you can do,” says Raymond Blanc, born in the Jura region of France and chef of the two-star hotel-restaurant Manoir aux Quat’saisons. “I can open a business in England in five days. In France it would take three months.” The manoir aux Quat’saisons, by the way, is in Oxford, Britain, France’s ancient rival. And, when it comes to cooking, a future one as well.

　　参考译文:

　　还有什么比晴朗的周日上午的露天市场更具法国风情呢?空气中满是水果和蔬菜的香味，这些水果和蔬菜被商贩们摆放得极具创意。鱼贩子们冰床上的新产品还带着大西洋的痕迹。

　　你可能会认为这就是法国的精髓所在，直到你看到那些小标签上标明西红柿(真的很难吃)是摩洛哥的温室里培养出来的，葡萄是从南非出产的，而猕猴桃的产地则是智利。

　　对于几代法国人来说，他们都为自己的独特而感到骄傲。没有什么比烹饪更能代表法国的优越性。法国人的烹饪天赋、品味以及技术已经遍及世界各地，但是却存在着问题。从泰晤士到东京，非法国本土厨师已经破解出了最高水平法式烹饪的秘诀。与此同时，其他地方平庸的烹饪技艺被引入法国。(信不信由你，一家号称有巴黎名厨的餐馆做牛排用的酱料与做巨无霸所用的酱料别无两样。)其结果是：许多游客——连同法国人自己——根本就看不出法国烹饪到底有什么特别。

　　这种衰落与最近一项调查吻合。这项调查显示人们对法式烹饪的平庸及高价的抱怨在不断增加。越来越多的餐馆老板声称政府的税收和经济政策使他们的利润减少，因而削弱了他们进一步投资或者雇用更多员工的能力。他们陷入繁文缛节使得法国声名狼籍——更不用提布鲁塞尔的那些条条框框，从销售税到布里干酪里的细菌含量，这些条条框框的影响远处不在。许多人警告说，欧盟东扩会损害法国小农场主的利益，而这些人是法国传统烹饪的支柱——因此出现了法国的身份问题。让法国人感到不幸的是，对于这些问题，至今没有找到让人放心的解决办法。

　　法国的问题并不在于缺少创造性，而是政治环境不利于创造性的发展。如果官僚作风和税收压得你透不过气来，就像法国一样，“你根本就没办法有所作为。”瑞蒙德.布朗说道，他出生在法国的钕拉地区，现在是一家叫做四季庄园的二星级宾馆的主厨。“在英国，我能在五天之内开店，而在法国则要花上三个月时间。”顺便说一句，四季庄园开在英国的牛津，法国的老对手那里。在烹饪方面，英国在未来仍将是法国的竞争对手。

　　Directions: This task is the same as Task 1. The 5 questions or unfinished statements are numbered 41 through 45.

　　A house is the most expensive thing most people will ever buy. Very few people have enough money of their own to buy a home, so they have to borrow money from a bank. Borrowing money from a bank to buy a house is called “take a mortgage (抵押).”The bank usually lends money or gives a mortgae for twenty-five years. Houses are so expensive that many people nowadays have to borrow as much as $ 50 000. In other words, they will have a $ 50 000 mortgage.

　　How can you get a mortgage? When you find a house you like, you go to a bank. The bank will research you financial (金融的) history and decide if. they think you are a good risk. They will want to know what kind of job you have, what kind of salary you make, and how long you have had the job. They will also want to know how much money you have. In addition, the banks will require a down payment. Depending on which state you live in, the bank may require as much as 30% of the-price of the house as a down payment. The bank will then lend you the rest of the money to buy the house. Many people are never able to buy a house because they cannot save enough money for the down payment.

　　1. What does a house mean in the United States?转自环球网校edu24ol.com

　　A) It is a dream which many people can hardly realize.

　　B) It is so expensive that many people cannot really buy them.

　　C) It is the most important property that many people try to buy.

　　D) It doesn't belong to people if they can't borrow money from the bank.

　　2. If American people borrow money from the bank for 25 years, this means that the person who borrows

　　A) has twenty-five years to pay back the money

　　B) has more than twenty-five years to pay back the money

　　C) has less than twenty-five years to pay back the money

　　D) has about twenty-five years to pay back the money

　　3. What does“down payment”refer to in the passage?

　　A) Money borrowed from a bank as a mortgage.