初三英语时文阅读5月时政增期

初三英语时文阅读5月时政增期

（材料一）无论是现实中的还是概念化的，绿色建筑都有让人惊叹之处。

Green Architecture: Now and in the Future

Architecture is going green, just as many other things are. Green architecture comes in many forms. Let’s take a look at some of the most amazing real and conceptual designs.

Wind-powered building

The Bahrain World Trade Center (巴林世贸中心) is the first

skyscraper in the world to integrate wind turbines into its design. The 240 meters high twin tower building has three bridges connecting the two towers.

Each bridge holds one large wind turbine with a capacity of 225kW (千瓦)

of wind energy production. These turbines, each 29 meters in diameter, face north, the direction from which the wind blows in from the Persian Gulf (波斯湾). The turbines operate half of the time in a day, supplying 15 percent

of the electricity for the two towers.

Glowing solar power plant

Glowing bright white, the PS10 tower looks like something straight out of a fairy tale. In fact, it’s a solar power plant in Spain. It’s Europe’s first commercial power station to use the energy of the sun. How does it work? The solar power tower produces electricity with 624 large movable mirrors, which direct the sun’s rays to a single point of the tower and turn water at that point into steam. The steam then moves through turbines and generates energy.

Floating eco-cities

The Lilypad Project* is perhaps the most fantastic of green architecture and certainly the farthest from being built, but it’s too amazing a concept not

to mention. The idea is to create a series of self-sufficient eco-city (生态城市) islands floating in the sea. Each one would be able to house 50,000

residents. Collecting pools located in their centers would gather and filter water for use on board. These would be places for adventurers and refugees,

as sea levels rise around the world and threaten many habitats, particularly islands.

（材料二）“我的新闻我作主”，平民新闻正日渐走俏。

Becoming a Citizen Journalist

Have you thought about writing news reports for your local newspaper? Now, citizens in the Washington area are given such opportunities. The Washington Times (《华盛顿时报》) launches one full print page per day of

news stories reported and written by average citizens in local communities.

It is an experiment with “citizen journalism.”

Citizen journalism has been a long tradition in American newspapers. The Washington Times is just increasing the intensity and the coverage. The citizen journalists’ work is printed in the A-section as an additional page. It also provides a natural complement to the work of the newspaper’s reporters and editors.

Due to a lack of a newsroom budget, there are many issues and communities the newspaper has not been able to fully cover. Therefore, the Times is excited to hire citizens within those communities to provide news that will interest all its readers. U.S. newspapers are now facing a steep decline in print advertising revenue. The project aims to search for new and creative ways to raise circulation and readership.

While The Washington Times is expanding its reach through this project, it will not be decreasing the paper quality. Citizen stories must meet the same strict standards for precision, fairness, balance and ethics. Each citizen journalist is provided a set of rules for their reporting and newswriting, as well as copies of the Times’ policies of ethics and other journalistic standards.

The idea of community journalism in a print form is actually a new take (看法) on an old tradition. Rural and county newspapers, community weeklies (周报) always had space for the community news, written by

someone local. That kind of coverage was and still is very popular. It takes its inspiration from ordinary people. Most importantly, it remains an

effective way to give a voice to (给……表达意见的权利) the voiceless.

（材料三）汶川大地震之后，灾区重建工作一直在进行。而时隔一年，

灾区人民的生活也逐渐步入正轨。

Sichuan Earthquake Survivors Move on with New Hope

On May 12, 2008, China’s worst earthquake in three decades hit Sichuan province. A massive reconstruction effort has followed since then.

A whole year later, survivors are moving on, with new hope for life.

New schools

More than 10,000 students who had to study elsewhere will return to newly-built schools in their hometown, Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the earthquake, local officials said.

Ninety-five percent of the school reconstruction in Wenchuan is expected to be completed before September 1 when the new school term begins, said Hu Zheng’an, the head of the Wenchuan Education Bureau (汶

川教育局).

Students of four primary schools continued their education in prefabricated houses in Wenchuan, while most of the nearly 16,000 students across the county moved to other cities in the country after the earthquake.

The county made a new program for school building with a budget of more than 2.2 billion yuan. As one of the first to start reconstruction, Sanjiang Primary School resumes classes for 360 pupils on May 12. The day marks the first anniversary of the earthquake.

Reviving(复苏的) tourism

Tourists from other parts of China swarmed to quake zones during the May 1 holiday weekend.

The number of tourists visiting Mount Qingcheng (青城山) and Dujiangyan (都江堰), both well-known scenic sites to the west of Chengdu,

rose by 30 percent from last year’s figure to hit 80,000. Most of the tourists were from other parts of the country, said an official.

A quake ruins museum park is in the pipeline. According to the construction plan, the museum park will cover eight square kilometers and will have three parts: a museum building, old Beichuan county quake ruins,

and a center for secondary disaster display (次生灾害展示) and nature conservation.

（材料四）如果说，除了灾难和痛苦，汶川地震还带给了我们什么，那就是：人类对自然的敬畏，以及彼此更加贴近的心！

All Our Hearts, All Our Hands

The earthquake in Sichuan happened one year ago. It was a terrible thing that destroyed the lives of many, many people. We all remember seeing the first television pictures coming from the quake area and having difficulty trying to believe them. But it was the television pictures that jolted the country into action.

Almost overnight a massive relief operation began. The government led the effort but ordinary people all over the country got involved, too. Money was raised, relief supplies were collected and, most importantly, individuals were volunteering to do anything necessary to help their “neighbors” in Sichuan. As one of my students said, we wanted to help with, “all our hearts and all our hands.”

If anything good came out of the Sichuan earthquake, it was this feeling of “connectedness (联系)”among the people. The people felt united

in their sorrow but also united in their desire to help. This concern for others is seen today in the increase in young people volunteering in their own communities.

The earthquake also made people realize that life is both precious and unpredictable. Hearing the many stories of parents who became childless and children who became orphans has brought families closer together. They realize how lucky they are to have each other.

Finally, the earthquake has shown us once again the power of nature. Human beings have always tried to control nature, to make it our servant. Sometimes we are successful. After all, we can turn night into day just by switching on a light, or be hot or cold by adjusting the a/c (= air

conditioning空调设备). But that control can disappear instantly with an

earthquake or a tsunami.

The earthquake in Sichuan was a terrible thing, but it has taught us two important lessons: to respect nature and to love each other.

（材料五）当流星划过夜空，默许一个心愿……恐怕没有什么天文现象比流星雨更浪漫、更迷人了。

Meteor Showers: Ready to Make a Wish?

It is said that wishes made when seeing a “shooting star”(meteor) come true. When there is a meteor shower, you can take your time to make wishes because hundreds or thousands of meteors move across the sky during a meteor shower, which makes it one of the most amazing astronomical phenomena.

How do meteor showers happen?

When comets pass through space, they leave behind a trail of dust and ice. If the Earth then crosses this trail, these comet fragments will shine because friction with the atmosphere heats them to incandescence. From the ground, we see them as jets of bright light, shooting across the sky.

All of the meteors in a shower come from the same point in the sky—known as the “radiant.”It’s like driving a car through a tunnel: some parts of the tunnel pass on your left, or right, over head or beneath the car. In this case, the “radiant” would be “straight ahead.”

The Earth follows the same path around the Sun every year. So it always crosses a comet trail at the same point in its orbit, and we see meteor showers at the same time every year.

How can we see meteor showers?

There is no point in trying to see meteor showers through a telescope because meteors move across the sky so fast. Meteor showers are among the few astronomical phenomena that are best seen with the naked eye. All you need to do is make yourself comfortable, and look up at the right part of the sky.

Major meteor showers

Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which they appear. For example, Leonids (狮子座流星雨) always appear around the constellation of Leo (狮子座). Other major meteor showers include Perseids (英仙座流星雨), Orionids (猎户座流星雨), Geminids (双子座流星雨), etc.

（材料六）在当今物理学界，恐怕没有哪个名字比斯蒂芬·霍金更响亮了。

Stephen Hawking—the Greatest Mind since Einstein

Stephen Hawking, the British theoretical physicist (理论物理学家), is

regarded as the greatest mind in physics since Albert Einstein.

Hawking was born in England in 1942 to Frank and Isobel Hawking, a research biologist and a political activist (活跃分子). Awkward as he was as a

schoolboy, Hawking knew early on that he wanted to study science. He became increasingly skilled in mathematics. In 1959, he won a scholarship to Oxford University, where his intellectual capabilities became more noticeable.

Hawking got his degree with honors in 1962, and went to Cambridge University to pursue a PhD (博士学位) in cosmology (宇宙学). In the following year, he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease (卢伽雷氏症，一种会导致运动神经坏死和肌肉萎缩的病症), for which he uses a wheelchair and speaks through a computer and voice synthesizer (语音合成器), but his work was hardly slowed by the disease. There he became intrigued with black holes (黑洞). After receiving his PhD, Hawking stayed at Cambridge, becoming known in his twenties (在他二十几岁的时候) for his pioneering

ideas and use of Einstein’s formulas, as well as his questioning of older, established physicists.

Hawking is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity (量子引力), especially in the context of black holes. In 1968, Hawking began to apply the laws of thermodynamics (热动力学) to black

holes by means of very complicated mathematics. He worked on the theory of the origin of the universe, and in doing so found ways to link general relativity

(广义相对论) with quantum mechanics (量子力学). This contributed enormously to what physicists call Grand Unified Theory (大统一理论), a way

of explaining all physical matter in the universe in one equation.

Hawking has been able to communicate mysterious matters not just to

other physicists but to the general public. In 1988, he wrote A Brief History of

Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (《时间简史—从大爆炸到黑洞》), explaining the evolution of his thinking about the cosmos (宇宙) for a general audience. It became a long standing best-seller (长期畅销书) and established his reputation as an accessible genius.

（材料七）世卫组织表示由于甲型H1N1流感病毒变化难测，此次流感有全球爆发的可能。虽然该组织可能将流感警戒级别提高至6级，但同时也表示民众不必过于恐慌。

WHO: Second Wave of H1N1 Flu* Could Strike Harder

H1N1 flu (swine flu) could strike “with a vengeance (复仇)” in the coming months, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO，世界卫生组织) said as the number of confirmed cases across the world passed

1,000.

The WHO is considering raising its flu alert level to the top of its

six-point scale*, meaning that the virus has spread between different regions and a pandemic is under way.

Dr. Margaret Chan, the organization’s director general (世卫组织秘

书长陈冯富珍), warned that a second wave of the virus is likely to be the

“biggest of all outbreaks the world has faced in the 21st century,”puncturing optimism that the spread may have been contained.

The week before last, the agency raised its alert level (警戒级别) to

five, which meant that a pandemic was “imminent.”

However, Dr. Chan pointed out: “Level six does not mean in any way that we are facing the end of the world. It is important to make this clear because when we announce level six it will cause an unnecessary panic.”

But she added: “Flu viruses are very unpredictable, very deceptive. We should not be overconfident. The situation is evolving and the virus is

changing.”

She said the end of the flu season in the northern hemisphere (北半球)

meant that, while at the beginning the outbreak could be mild, a second wave may be more deadly.

Across the world there have now been more than 1,000 confirmed cases reported in over 20 countries. Up to 20 countries have banned imports of pork and other meat even though the H1N1 flu does not spread through food. The global trade in pork meat is worth about￡17 billion a year.

Mexico, the center of the outbreak, raised its confirmed H1N1 flu toll but said the epidemic appeared to be slowing.

（材料八）一年前的今天，我们见证了苦难和悲痛；一年后的今天，我们感受到了希望和坚强。

Changes and New Beginnings

The twelfth day of May marks the one- year anniversary of the huge earthquake that shook China to its core. We all know there was destruction and loss of life on a massive scale, but we also know that the world does not stop and stand still for anyone. Just as the seasons repeat themselves each year, change, renewal and new beginnings move us forward as well.

Some of the heartache and despair from the destruction and death still linger in Sichuan, but a new optimism has also taken hold in its place. Houses and buildings have been rebuilt, and lives and the injured are healing. As with most disasters, the pain of the past has given way to renewal and rebirth, and there is hope for positive changes to come. People are moving forward with their lives. The future is filled with challenges and change, but is also bright with opportunity.

At the same time, we should also consider the more complex changes that have taken place in China during this past year. While the healing and rebuilding after the earthquake have helped to ease the physical pain, perhaps a new appreciation for the meaning and value of life has also taken hold. The world watched as China was shaken by the quake, but its people did not falter or surrender to the pain and hardship. The country showed the world how quickly it could respond to a disaster and adapt to the changes thrust upon it, and we all learned a lesson about how precious life is.

Perhaps we only learn the true value of something when it is taken from us. The earthquake was a potent reminder of how valuable life is.