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高中英语课文阅读材料 Furthermore...
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Expansion
(Key words: expansion, heat, thermometre, mercury, rail, space, contract, air)
When we heat anything, it expands. It grows bigger than it was before.
When a boy is ill, a doctor usually takes his temperature. He puts a thermometre (1) in the boy's mouth. The boy has to keep the thermometre under his tongue. Several minutes later, the doctor takes it out and looks at it. The thermometre can tell the doctor that the boy has a fever.
The thermometre is made of glass. The glass itself is a tube and there is some mercury (2) in the tube. The boy's tongue makes the mercury warm; so it expands. The top of the mercury runs up the tube.
The rails on a railway expand on a hot day. You may notice spaces between the ends of the rails. On a cold day the ends of the two rails do not meet; but on a hot day each rail expands. Then the two ends get nearer together.
Very often a machine is made in different pieces. Then we have to fit the pieces together. Perhaps there is a metal ring, and the ring has to go on a tube. It is not bigger, and so it does not easily go on. But we can heat the ring first. Then it will expand. So we can easily put it in its proper place on the tube. When it cools, it will contract (3). It will return to its old size, and then it will be tight on the tube.
Stretch a rubber balloon over the neck of an empty bottle. Put the bottle into hot water. You will see that the balloon blows up. This shows that when heat is added, the air in the bottle expands, and more and more air flows into the balloon from the bottle.
Question
1. Could you cite some phenomena which can find grounds from the theory of expansion?
Notes: 1. (n.) 温度计 2. (n.) 汞，水银 3. (v.) 收缩
American food
(Key words: bland, calorie, coffee, quick, preserve, over-processed, lose, nutritive, fast food)
Generally speaking, American food is rather bland (1) and unspiced. Salads are much liked and are served all year round. Many American people are trying to keep down their weight and so they are "calorie" (2) conscious. This is evident in menus offering "low calorie" or "weight watchers" meals.
Waiters in American restaurants tend to assume that everyone drinks coffee. If a waiter suddenly asks "Now or later?" what he means is "Do you want coffee with your meal or later?" Many Americans drink coffee or tea with their meal. American restaurants cannot serve beer, wine, or liquor unless they are licensed to do so.
The main course in American meals is usually meat, fowl or fish, but rarely is more than one of these served at the same meal.
Most Americans eat quickly during the day -- that is, breakfast and lunch -- unless it is a social, business, or family occasion. The evening meal, however, is usually leisurely and a family time. Racing through daytime meals is part of the American pace of life, for working time is considered precious. There is also another reason, that others in public eating places are waiting for you to finish so they too can be served and get back to work within the allotted (3) time. Each one hurries to make room for the next person.
Good transportation and advanced methods of preserving perishables (4) make it possible for the people to select from a wide variety of foods throughout the year. This has both advantages and disadvantages. Though fresh fruits and vegetables are always available, many foods are over-processed and have lost much of their basic nutritive value. Chemicals, like nitrites (5), used to preserve certain meats, are believed to cause cancer. Through extensive television advertising, children are enticed to eat foods with high sugar and chemical content, which produce large profits for the manufacturers.
A phenomenon of the American eating pattern is the nationwide proliferation (6) of chains of fast food restaurants. Their standardized, technically produced products are reasonably priced, instantly available and taste the same whether purchased in New York City or Los Angeles. These foods are high in fat, sugar and salt. Often, they are the major meal of the day of many young and working people.
Question
1. Why does fast food become the first choice of the day meal of many working people in the United States?
Notes: 1. (adj.) 清淡的 2. (n.) 热量单位卡路里 3. (adj.) 规定的 4. (n.) 易变质的东西 5. (n.) 亚硝酸盐 6. (n.) 扩展
Lies and noses
(Key words: lie, nose, same, difference, subtle, swell, scratch, touch, awkward, bluff, blood, expand, inflammation)
Every child knows that the puppet (1) Pinocchio's nose, in the classic children's tale, grows longer every time he tells a lie. Now scientists claim to have discovered that humans suffer the same indignity (2) when we are economical with the truth. And who did they study to find out? Why, the president of the United States, of course.
Dr Alan Hirsch is one of the world's leading experts on the human nose. And he is the man behind the theory that it gets a little larger if its owner tells a lie. Although the difference is too small to see with the naked eyes, he says the subtle swelling can trigger (3) a bout (4) of scratching.
Dr Hirsch, author and psychologist at the Smell and Taste Treatment Foundation in Chicago, discovered the expanding nose while analyzing television footage of Bill Clinton. After a close examination of his testimony (5) in front of the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair, Dr Hirsch noticed that the president let slip (6) a variety of clues that he was being less than honest.
Dr Hirsch and his colleague Charles Wolf of the University of Illinois both spotted (7) that Clinton frequently broke the questioner's gaze, became tongue-tied (8) and touched his nose far more often than normal when asked awkward questions about his relationship with Miss Lewinsky.
Past studies of liars in the UK have also found that people scratch their nose and mouth more often if they are bluffing (9) or telling lies. "When they feel guilty, blood still rushes into their nose," said Dr Hirsch, "the tissue (10) in the nose expands slightly, causing inflammation (11) and a desire to touch its tip."
Question
1. According to the article, why are people likely to touch or scratch their noses when they are telling lies?
Notes: 1. (n.) 木偶 2. (n.) 羞辱 3. (v.) 引起 4. (n.) 一阵 5. (n.) 作证 6. (v.) 泄露 7. (v.) 发现 8. (adj.) 张口结舌的 9. (v.) 虚张声势 10. (n.) 组织 11. (n.) 燥热
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