大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 23 课文译文参考
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 23 非言语交际
23-A. Non-verbal Communication
If anyone asked you what were the main means of communication between people, what would you say? That isn’t a catch question. The answer is simple and obvious. It would almost certainly refer to means of communication that involve the use of words. Speakers and listeners-oral communication, and writers and readers-written communication. And you’d be quite right. There is, however, another form of communication which we all use most of the time, usually without knowing it. This is sometimes called body language. Its more technical name is non-verbal communication. Non-verbal, because it does not involve the use of words. NVC for short.
When someone is saying something with which he agrees, the average European will smile and nod approval. On the other hand, if you disagree with what they are saying, you may frown and shake your head. In this way you signal your reactions, and communicate them to the speaker without saying a word. I referred a moment ago to "the average European”, because body language is very much tied to culture, and in order not to misunderstand, or not to be misunderstood, you must realize this. A smiling Chinese, for instance, may not be approving but somewhat embarrassed.
Quite a lot of work is now being done on the subject of NVC, which is obviously important, for instance, to managers, who have to deal every day with their staff, and have to understand what other people are feeling if they are to create good working conditions. Body language, or NVC signals, are sometimes categorized into five kinds: 1.body and facial gestures; 2.eye contact; 3.body contact or "proximity"; 4.clothing and physical appearance; and 5.the quality of speech. I expect you understood all those, except perhaps "proximity." This simply means "closeness". In some cultures-and I am sure this is a cultural feature and not an individual one-it is quite normal for people to stand close together, or to more or less thrust their face into yours when they are talking to you. In other cultures, this is disliked; Americans, for instance, talk about invasion of their space.
Some signals are probably common to all of us. If a public speaker (like a professor, for example) is all the time fiddling with a pencil, or with his glasses, while he is talking to you, he is telling you quite clearly that he is nervous. A person who holds a hand over his mouth when he is talking is signaling that he is lacking in confidence. If you start wriggling in your chairs, looking secretly at your watches or yawning behind your hands, I shall soon get the message that I’m boring you. And so on. I'm sure you could make a whole list of such signals-and it might be fun if you did.
All the signals I have mentioned so far can be controlled. If you are aware that you are doing these things, you can stop. You can even learn to give false signals. Most public speakers are in fact nervous, but a good speaker learns to hide this by giving off signals of confidence. Other kinds of NVC are not so easy to control. Eye contact, for instance. Unless you are confessing intense love, you hardly ever look into someone else’s eyes for very long. If you try it, you’ll find they will soon away, probably in embarrassment.
I’ve already mentioned proximity, so just a brief word now about our last two categories, which concern the way people dress and the way they speak. These are both pretty obvious signals. People may dress casually and speak casually, which signals that they are relaxed. Or they can dress formally and speak formally, showing their tenseness. In fact, non-verbal communication can, as the saying goes, speak volumes.
【课文译文】
非言语交际
如果有人问你人与人之间最主要的交际手段是什么，你会怎么说?这倒不是一个难以回答的问题。答案简单明了。几乎可以肯定地说，它指的是运用语言进行交际。说话者和听话者之间是口头交际，作者和读者之间是书面交际。你的回答已经相当正确。但是，还有另一种交际手段，这一手段我们多数时间在使用，却又常常忽视。它有时被叫作体势语。更专业些的名字是非言语交际。之所以称之为非言语交际，是因为它不涉及言词。非言语交际的缩略语为NVC。
一般的欧洲人，在听别人说他赞同的事情时，会微笑并点头表示赞许。如果不同意别人的话，他会皱眉、摇头。用这种方式无需言词就可以把自己的态度传达给说话者。笔者刚才提到“一般的欧洲人”，是因为体势语与文化密切相关。为了不误解别人，也不被人误解，了解这一点非常必要。例如，中国人的微笑可能是表示某种不安而不是赞许。
关于NVC这个课题，现在正进行着大量的研究工作。这些研究工作显然很重要。比如，对管理者来说，他们每天与员工打交道，为了创造良好的工作环境，他们必须了解员工们的感觉。人们有时把体势语或称NVC信号分为五种：1.身体姿势和面部表情；2.目光接触；3.身体接触或“亲近程度”；4.着装与外貌；5.语言特点。笔者认为大家明白上述除“亲近程度”以外的各条。“亲近程度”简单来说就是“亲密程度”。在有些文化中——笔者非常肯定，“亲近程度”是一种文化特征而非个体特征——人们站得很近是很正常的；同样，人们在谈话时不时地把脸凑近你的脸，也是正常的。但在另一些文化中，上面这些行为就不受欢迎。比如，美国人会说这侵犯了他们的个人空间。
一些体势语信号非常普遍。如果在公共场所讲话的人(如大学教授)一直在玩弄铅笔或眼镜，说明他很紧张。说话时把手放在嘴上的人说明他缺乏信心。如果听讲的人开始在椅子上扭来扭去，偷偷地看手表或用手捂住嘴打哈欠，讲话的人很快就得到这样的信息：“我的话令人厌烦”。如此种种，不胜枚举。笔者相信读者可以列出一长串这样的体势语信号。试试吧，会很有趣的。
上面所提到的体势语信号，都是可以控制的。如果意识到自己在那样做，可以停下来。甚至可以给出虚假的信号，实际上，多数在公共场合讲话的人都会感到紧张，好的讲话者学会了通过发出有信心的信号来掩盖紧张情绪。其他的NVC信号就不容易控制。比如，目光接触。除非有强烈的爱，否则，人们很难长久地注视别人的眼睛。如果试一下你就会发现，别人会转移目光，看别处，而且可能会局促不安。
笔者已经提到过亲近程度，现在来简短地谈谈最后两种体势语信号，它们与人们的着装与说话方式有关。这两种信号都很明显。衣着随便、谈吐自然的人很放松，衣着正规、谈吐严谨的人情绪紧张。事实上，正如常言所说，非言语交际此时无声胜有声。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 01 怎样成为一名成功的语言学习者
01-A. How to be a successful language learner?
“Learning a language is easy, even a child can do it!”
Most adults who are learning a second language would disagree with this statement. For them, learning a language is a very difficult task. They need hundreds of hours of study and practice, and even this will not guarantee success for every adult language learner.
Language learning is different from other kinds of learning. Some people who are very intelligent and successful in their fields find it difficult to succeed in language learning. Conversely, some people who are successful language learners find it difficult to succeed in other fields.
Language teachers often offer advice to language learners: “Read as much as you can in the new language.”“ Practice speaking the language every day. ”“Live with people who speak the language.”“Don’t translate-try to think in the new language.”“ Learn as a child would learn; play with the language.”
But what does a successful language learner do? Language learning research shows that successful language learners are similar in many ways.
First of all, successful language learners are independent learners. They do not depend on the book or the teacher; they discover their own way to learn the language. Instead of waiting for the teacher to explain, they try to find the patterns and the rules for themselves. They are good guessers who look for clues and form their own conclusions. When they guess wrong, they guess again. They try to learn from their mistakes.
Successful language learning is active learning. Therefore, successful learners do not wait for a chance to use the language; they look for such a chance. They find people who speak the language and they ask these people to correct them when they make a mistake. They will try anything to communicate. They are not afraid to repeat what they hear or to say strange things; they are willing to make mistakes and try again. When communication is difficult, they can accept information that is inexact or incomplete. It is more important for them to learn to think in the language than to know the meaning of every word.
Finally, successful language learners are learners with a purpose. They want to learn the language because they are interested in the language and the people who speak it. It is necessary for them to learn the language in order to communicate with these people and to learn from them. They find it easy to practice using the language regularly because they want to learn with it.
What kind of language learner are you? If you are a successful language learner, you have probably been learning independently, actively, and purposefully. On the other hand, if your language learning has been less than successful, you might do well to try some of the techniques outlined above.
【课文译文】
怎样成为一名成功的语言学习者
“学习一门语言很容易，即使小孩也能做得到。”
大多数正在学习第二语言的成年人会不同意这种说法。对他们来说，学习一门语言是非常困难的事情。他们需要数百小时的学习与练习，即使这样也不能保证每个成年语言学习者都能学好。
语言学习不同于其他学习。许多人很聪明，在自己的领域很成功，但他们发现很难学好一门语言。相反，一些人学习语言很成功，但却发现很难在其他领域有所成就。
语言教师常常向语言学习者提出建议：“要用新的语言尽量多阅读”，“每天练习说这种语言”，“与说这种语言的人住在一起”，“不要翻译——尽量用这种新的语言去思考”，“要像孩子学语言一样去学习新语言”，“放松地去学习语言。”
然而，成功的语言学习者是怎样做的呢?语言学习研究表明，成功的语言学习者在许多方面都有相似之处。
首先，成功的语言学习者独立学习。他们不依赖书本和老师，而且能找到自己学习语言的方法。他们不是等待老师来解释，而是自己尽力去找到语言的句式和规则。他们寻找线索并由自己得出结论，从而做出正确的猜测。如果猜错，他们就再猜一遍。他们都努力从错误中学习。
成功的语言学习是一种主动的学习。因此，成功的语言学习者不是坐等时机而是主动寻找机会来使用语言。他们找到(说)这种语言的人进行练习，出错时请这些人纠正。他们不失时机地进行交流，不怕重复所听到的话，也不怕说出离奇的话，他们不在乎出错，并乐于反复尝试。当交流困难时，他们可以接受不确切或不完整的信息。对他们来说，更重要的是学习用这种语言思考，而不是知道每个词的意思。
最后，成功的语言学习者学习目的明确。他们想学习一门语言是因为他们对这门语言以及说这种语言的人感兴趣。他们有必要学习这门语言去和那些人交流并向他们学习。他们发现经常练习使用这种语言很容易，因为他们想利用这种语言来学习。
你是什么样的语言学习者?如果你是一位成功的语言学习者，那么你大概一直在独立地、主动地、目的明确地学习。另一方面,如果你的语言学习一直不太成功,你不妨试试上面提到的一些技巧。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 02 税、税、还是税
02-A. Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes
Americans often say that there are only two things a person can be sure of in life: death and taxes, Americans do not have a corner on the "death" market, but many people feel that the United States leads the world with the worst taxes.
Taxes consist of the money which people pay to support their government. There are generally three levels of government in the United States: federal, state, and city; therefore, there are three types of taxes.
Salaried people who earn more than a few thousand dollars must pay a certain percentage of their salaries to the federal government. The percentage varies from person to person. It depends on their salaries. The federal government has a graduated income tax, that is, the percentage of the tax (14 to 70 percent) increases as a person's income increases. With the high cost of taxes, people are not very happy on April 15, when the federal taxes are due.
The second tax is for the state government: New York, California, North Dakota, or any of the other forty-seven states. Some states have an income tax similar to that of the federal government. Of course, the percentage for the state tax is lower. Other states have a sales tax, which is a percentage charged to any item which you buy in that state. For example, a person might want to buy a packet of cigarettes for twenty-five cents. If there is a sales tax of eight percent in that state, then the cost of the cigarettes is twenty-seven cents. This figure includes the sales tax. Some states use income tax in addition to sales tax to raise their revenues. The state tax laws are diverse and confusing.
The third tax is for the city. This tax comes in two forms: property tax (people who own a home have to pay taxes on it) and excise tax, which is charged on cars in a city. The cities use these funds for education, police and fire departments, public works and municipal buildings.
Since Americans pay such high taxes, they often feel that they are working one day each week just to pay their taxes. People always complain about taxes. They often protest that the government uses their tax dollars in the wrong way. They say that it spends too much on useless and impractical programs. Although Americans have different views on many issues, they tend to agree on one subject: taxes are too high.
【课文译文】
税、税、还是税
美国人常说，人的一生有两件事可以肯定会发生：死亡和税收。美国人并不垄断死亡市场，但许多人却感到美国以最重的赋税领先于世界。
税指人们为支持政府而缴纳的资金。在美国通常有三级政府：联邦政府，州政府及市政府，因此就存在三种税。
收入超过几千元的工薪人士必须向联邦政府缴纳一定比率的税金。这一比率因人而异，取决于各人的工资数。联邦政府实行累进收入所得税制，也就是说，税率(14%～70%)随个人收入的增加而增加，由于高额税收，人们在4月15日很不愉快，因为这一天是缴纳税款的日子。
第二种税是缴纳给州政府的，这些州包括纽约，加利福尼亚，北达科他以及其他47个州中的任何一个。一些州的收入所得税的收取办法同联邦政府的相似，当然其税率要低一些。一些州设有销售税，即对你在该州所购买的任何商品所收的一定比率的税金。比如，某人想买一包25美分的烟。如果该州收取8%的销售税，那么买这包烟要花27美分，这一钱数就包括销售税。一些州利用收入所得税外加销售税的办法来提高税收，各州的税收法规五花八门，令人费解。
第三种税是向市政府缴纳的。这种税有两种：一种是财产税(拥有房屋的人都必须交税)，另一种是本国消费税，即对城市汽车所征收的税金。城市将这些资金用于教育、警察和消防部门、公共设施及市政建设。
由于美国人须付高额税金，所以他们经常感到每周有一天纯粹是在为缴税而工作。人们总是在抱怨税收太高。他们常常抗议政府滥用他们的税金。他们说政府将太多的钱花在无用且不符合实际的项目上了。尽管美国人在很多问题上有不同的看法，但他们在一个话题上的意见总是一致的：税收太高。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 03 大西洋
03-A. The Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americas from being discovered by the people of Europe.
Many wrong ideas about the Atlantic made early sailors unwilling to sail far out into it. One idea was that it reached out to "the edge of the world." Sailors were afraid that they might sail right off the earth. Another idea was that at the equator the ocean would be boiling hot.
The Atlantic Ocean is only half as big as the Pacific, but it is still very large. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000 km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2, 000 miles (3,200 km) wide. This narrowest place is between the bulge of south America and the bulge of Africa.
Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few islands. Also, it is the world's saltiest ocean.
There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers. It would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average the water is a little more than two miles (3.2 km) deep, but in places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This "deep" 30, 246 feet - almost six miles (9.6 km).
One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands. The Azores are the tops of peaks in the mid-Atlantic mountain range.
Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels the crew were afraid they would be becalmed here. Sometimes they were.
Ocean currents are sometime called "rivers in the sea." One of these "river" in the Atlantic is called the Gulf Stream. It is a current of warm water. Another is the Labrador Current - cold water coming down from the Arctic. Ocean currents affect the climates of the lands near which they flow.
The Atlantic furnishes much food for the people on its shores. One of its most famous fishing regions, the Grand Banks, is near Newfoundland.
Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is not, however, always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.
We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!
【课文译文】
大西洋
大西洋是将欧洲和美洲分隔开的海洋之一。它使南北美洲长达几个世纪之久都未被人发现。
人们对大西洋有许多误解，这使得早期的海员不愿意远航驶入大西洋。一种想法是大西洋远抵“世界的`边缘”，海员们担心他们会一直航行到地球边上掉落下去。另一个想法是在赤道处，大西洋的海水是滚烫的。
大西洋的面积只是太平洋的一半，但也非常辽阔。哥伦布穿越过的地方宽达4000多英里(6000公里)。即使最窄的地方宽度也有大约2000英里(3200公里)，这是一片位于南美洲最东端与非洲最西端之间的水域。
大西洋有两点非同寻常。其一是在如此辽阔的海洋里少有岛屿。另外，大西洋是世界上含盐量最高的海洋。
大西洋海水量很大，人们无法想像到底有多少水。但如果假设不再有降雨和河水注入，则需4000年大西洋才会干涸。大西洋平均水深有2英里(3.2公里)多一点，但有些地方要深得多。最深处在波多黎各岛附近，深达30246英尺——约6英里(9.6公里)。
世界上最长的山脉之一从大西洋海底隆起，这条山脉沿海底中部向南北延伸，几座山峰露出海面，形成岛屿。亚速尔群岛就是大西洋中部山脉露出水面的几座山峰。
佛罗里达州向东几百英里有一处海域叫马尾藻海，这里由于很少刮风，海面很平静。在使用帆船的时代，船员们担心他们会因无风而在此处无法航行。有时他们确实会遇到这种情况。
海流有时被称作“海洋中的河流”。大西洋有一条这种“河流”，叫做墨西哥湾流，这是一股暖水流；另外一条是拉布拉多海流——这是来自北冰洋的冷水流。洋流对流域附近大陆的气候有影响。
大西洋为两岸的人们提供了丰富的食物。大浅滩是最著名的捕鱼区之一，位于纽芬兰附近。
今天，大西洋是一条重要的航路，这条航路并不总是风平浪静，毫无危险。暴风雨会掠过洋面，堆起大浪。从北冰洋漂来的冰山也会横穿航道。
我们现在有快捷的旅行方式，这个大洋似乎也变小了。哥伦布横越大西洋用了两个多月的时间，一艘现代化快轮不到4天就可完成这一航程，而乘飞机从纽约到伦敦只用8小时，从南美到非洲只用4小时。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 04 改善你的记忆力
04-A. Improving Your Memory
Psychological research has focused on a number of basic principles that help memory: meaningfulness, organization, association, and visualization. It is useful to know how these principles work.
Meaningfulness affects memory at all levels. Information that does not make any sense to you is difficult to remember. There are several ways in which we can make material more meaningful. Many people, for instance, learn a rhyme to help them remember. Do you know the rhyme “Thirty days has September, April, June, and November…? ” It helps many people remember which months of the year have 30 days.
Organization also makes a difference in our ability to remember. How useful would a library be if the books were kept in random order? Material that is organized is better remembered than jumbled information. One example of organization is chunking. Chunking consists of grouping separate bits of information. For example, the number 4671363 is more easily remembered if it is chunked as 467,13,63. Categorizing is another means of organization. Suppose you are asked to remember the following list of words: man, bench, dog, desk, woman, horse, child, cat, chair. Many people will group the words into similar categories and remember them as follows: man, woman, child; cat, dog, horse; bench, chair, desk. Needless to say, the second list can be remembered more easily than the first one.
Association refers to taking the material we want to remember and relating it to something we remember accurately. In memorizing a number, you might try to associate it with familiar numbers or events. For example, the height of Mount Fuji in Japan - 12, 389 feet - might be remembered using the following associations: 12 is the number of months in the year, and 389 is the number of days in a year (365) added to the number of months twice (24).
The last principle is visualization. Research has shown striking improvements in many types of memory tasks when people are asked to visualize the items to be remembered. In one study, subjects in one group were asked to learn some words using imagery, while the second group used repetition to learn the words. Those using imagery remembered 80 to 90 percent of the words, compared with 30 to 40 percent of the words for those who memorized by repetition. Thus forming an integrated image with all the information placed in a single mental picture can help us to preserve a memory.
【课文译文】
改善你的记忆力
心理研究集中在有助于记忆力的几个基本原则，即富有意义、组织、联想和想像。知道这些原则如何发挥作用是非常有益的。
富有意义从各个方面影响记记力。你很难记住对你毫无意义的信息，我们可以用几种办法使材料变得更有意义。例如，很多人学会用韵音来帮助他们记忆。你知道“九、四、六、十一有30天……”这首押韵诗吗?它帮助人们记住一年中哪些月份有30天。
信息的组织也对我们的记忆能力造成差异。图书馆的书如果陈列得杂乱无章对我们还会有什么帮助吗?组织过的材料比混杂的信息更容易记住。组织信息的一个例子就是组块。组块是将一个个单独的信息组织成信息块。例如，4671363这组数字如果被组块成467 13 63就更容易记住。分类是另一种组织方法。假定要求你记住一组词：男人、凳子、狗、书桌、女人、马、孩子、猫、椅子。很多人会将这些词分成相似种类的几组，即男人、女人、孩子；猫、狗、马；凳子、椅子、书桌。不用说第二种排列比第一种排列更容易记忆。
联想指将我们要记忆的材料和我们已准确记住的信息联系起来。在记忆数字时，可以将这一数字与我们所熟悉的数字或事件联系起来，例如，日本富士山的高度为12，389英尺，这一数字可以用下面的联想法记住：12是一年中的月份数，389是一年的天数(365)加月数的两倍(24)。
最后一个基本原则是想像。研究表明，如果人们把需要记忆的东西进行想像，各种记忆能力都会有显著的提高。在一项研究中，一组受试者被要求使用想像法学习一些生词，而另外一组用重复法学习生词。用想像法记忆单词的一组记住了80%～90%的生词，相比之下，用重复法记忆单词的一组只记住了30%～40%的生词。因此，将所有的信息放在一幅内心的图画里，从而形成一个整体形象，可以帮助我们保存记忆。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 05 对食物的错误看法
05-A. Fallacies about Food
Many primitive peoples believed that by eating an animal they could get some of the good qualities of that animal for themselves. They thought, for example, that eating deer would make them run as fast as the deer. Some savage tribes believed that eating enemies that had shown bravery in battle would make them brave. Man-eating may have started because people were eager to become as strong and brave as their enemies.
Among civilized people it was once thought that ginger root by some magical power could improve the memory. Eggs were thought to make the voice pretty. Tomatoes also were believed to have magical powers. They were called love apples and were supposed to make people who ate them fall in love.
Later another wrong idea about tomatoes grew up - the idea that they were poisonous. How surprised the people who thought tomatoes poisonous would be if they could know that millions of pounds of tomatoes were supplied to soldiers overseas during World War II.
Even today there are a great many wrong ideas about food. Some of them are very widespread.
One such idea is that fish is the best brain food. Fish is good brain food just as it is good muscle food and skin food and bone food. But no one has been able to prove that fish is any better for the brain than many other kinds of food.
Another such idea is that you should not drink water with meals. Washing food down with water as a substitute for chewing is not a good idea, but some water with meals has been found to be helpful. It makes the digestive juices flow more freely and helps to digest the food.
Many of the ideas which scientists tell us have no foundation have to do with mixtures of foods. A few years ago the belief became general that orange juice and milk should never be drunk at the same meal. The reason given was that the acid in the orange juice would make the milk curdle and become indigestible. As a matter of fact, milk always meets in the stomach a digestive juice which curdles it; the curdling of the milk is the first step in its digestion. A similar wrong idea is that fish and ice cream when eaten at the same meal form a poisonous combination.
Still another wrong idea about mixing foods is that proteins and carbohydrates should never be eaten at the same meal. Many people think of bread, for example, as a carbohydrate food. It is chiefly a carbohydrate food, but it also contains proteins. In the same way, milk, probably the best single food, contains both proteins and carbohydrates. It is just as foolish to say that one should never eat meat and potatoes together as it is to say that one should never eat bread or drink milk.
【课文译文】
对食物的错误看法
很多原始民族认为吃某种动物可以使他们获得这种动物的一些好的品质。例如，他们认为吃鹿可以使他们跑得像鹿一样快。一些野蛮部落相信，吃战争中表现勇敢的敌人会使他们勇敢。吃人现象开始发生可能是因为人们渴望变得像他们的敌人那样强壮、勇敢。
一些文明人曾经认为，姜根有某种魔力，能改善他们的记忆力。蛋能美化他们的声音。也有人认为西红柿有魔力。西红柿被称为爱的苹果，他们认为吃西红柿能使人坠入爱河。
后来又出现了另一个关于西红柿的错误观点——西红柿有毒。如果认为西红柿有毒的人知道二战中数百万磅的西红柿提供给了在海外的战士们，他们会多么吃惊!
甚至在今天也有很多关于食物的错误看法，其中一些看法很普遍。一种想法认为鱼是最佳益脑食物。鱼是有益于大脑的食物，就像它对肌肉、皮肤、骨骼一样有益。但是没有人能够证明对于大脑来说鱼比其他种类的食物更好。
另外一种想法认为，吃饭的时候不应该喝水。虽然用水把食物冲下去来代替咀嚼不是个好主意，但是人们发现吃饭时喝点水是有益的。水能使消化液更自由地流动，有助于消化食物。
很多想法是关于食物混在一起吃的，而科学家告诉我们，这些想法毫无根据。几年前有一种很普遍的看法，认为不能在同一餐中喝桔子汁和牛奶，其理由是桔子汁中的酸性物质能使牛奶凝结而难以消化。事实上，牛奶在胃里总会遇到一种使它凝结的消化液，而这种凝结是消化的第一步。类似的一种错误想法认为在同一餐中吃鱼和冰淇淋会形成一种有毒的化合物。
还有一种关于食物混在一起吃的错误想法，即不能在同一餐中吃蛋白质食物和淀粉质食物。例如，很多人认为面包是一种淀粉质食物。虽然面包主要是一种淀粉质食物，但它也含有蛋白质。同样，牛奶可能是最好的单一食物，但它也含有蛋白质和淀粉。不要吃面包喝牛奶，这种说法是愚蠢的，就像说不要把肉类和土豆一起食用一样。
【大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 23 课文译文参考】相关文章：
大学英语自学教程词典是如何编纂的附翻译05-30
英语口语教程Unit 1003-16
英语自学方法参考05-09
大学英语课文翻译Unit 3-502-24
广告英语教程课文翻译02-12
有效的说美式英语大学英语作文及译文参考07-31
大二上册英语Unit1课文翻译02-20