高级英语阅读练习材料.docx

1、高级英语阅读练习材料高级英语阅读练习材料 学生应该能用词典和其他工具书独立解决语言和文化，背景知识方面的难点，提高自学能力，增加文化知识，尤其是所学语言国家的背景和文化知识，更好地使语言和文化结合在一起。下面是的高级练习材料，希望大家认真阅读! 4 Cool was I and logical. Keen, calculating, perspicacious , acuteand astute-I was all of these. My brain was as powerful as a dynamo, as precise as a chemists scales, as perati

2、ng as a scalpel. And-think of it! -I was only eighteen. 5 It is not often that one so young has such a giant intellect. Take, for example, Petey Butch, my roommate at the University of Minnesota. Same age, same background, but dumb as an ox. A nice enough young fellow, you understand, but nothing up

3、stairs. Emotional type. Unstable. Impressionable. Worst of all, a faddist. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason. To be swept up in every new craze that es along, to surrender yourself to idiocy just because everybody else is doing it-this, to me, is the acme of mindlessness. Not, however,

4、 to Petey. 6 One afternoon I found Petey lying on his bed with an expression of such distress on his face that I immediately diagnosed appendicitis. Dont move, I said. Dont take a laxative. Ill get a doctor. 7 Raoon, he mumbled thickly. 8 Raoon? I said, pausing in my flight. 9 1 want a raoon coat, h

5、e wailed. 10 I perceived that his trouble was not physical, but mental. Why do you want a raoon coat? 11 1 should have known it, he cried, pounding his temples. 1 should have known theyd e back when the Charleston came back. Like a fool I spent all my money for textbooks, and now I cant get a raoon

6、coat. 12 Can you mean. I said incredulously, that people are actually wearing raoon coats again? 13 All the Big Men on Campus are wearing them. Whereve you been? 14 In the library, I said, naming a place not frequented by Big Men on Campus 15 He leaped from the bed and paced the room, Ive got to hav

7、e a raoon coat, he said passionately. Ive got to! 16 Petey, why? Look at it rationally. Raoon coats are unsanitary. They shed. They smell bad. They weight too much. Theyre unsightly. They- 17 You dont understand, he interrupted impatiently. Its the thing to do. Dont you want to be in the swim? 18 No

8、, I said truthfully. 19 Well, I do, he declared. Id give anything for a raoon coat. Anything! 20 My brain, that precision instrument, slipped into high gear. Anything? I asked, looking at him narrowly. 21 Anything, he affirmed in ringing tones. 22 I stroked my chin thoughtfully. It so happened that

9、I knew where to set my hands on a raoon coat. My father had had one in his undergraduate days; it lay now in a trunk in the attic back home. It also happened that Petey had something I wanted. He didnt have it exactly, but at least he had first rights on it. I refer to his girl, Polly Espy. 23 I had

10、 long covetedPolly Espy. Let me emphasize that my desire for this young woman was not emotional in nature. She was, to be sure, a girl who excited the emotions but I was not one to let my heart rule my head. I wanted Polly for a shrewdly calculated, entirely cerebralreason. 24 I was a freshman in la

11、w school. In a few years I would be out in practice. I was well aware of the importance of the right kind of wife in furthering a lawyers career. The suessful lawyers I had observed were, almost without exception, married to beautiful, gracious, intelligent women. With one omission, Polly fitted the

12、se specifications perfectly. 25 Beautiful she was. She was not yet of pin-up proportionsbut I felt sure that time would supply the lack She already had the makings. 26 Gracious she was. By gracious I mean full of graces. She had an erectness of carriage, an ease of bearing, a poise that clearly indi

13、cated the best of breeding, At table her manners were exquisite. I had seen her at the Kozy Kampus Korner eating the specialty of the house-a sandwich that contained scraps of pot roast, gravy, chopped nuts, and a dipper of sauerkraut-without even getting her fingers moist. 27 Intelligent she was no

14、t. in fact, she veered in the opposite direction. But I believed that under my guidance she would smarten up. At any rate, it was worth a try. It is, after all, easier to make a beautiful dumb girl smart than to make an ugly smart girl beautiful. 28 Petey, I said, are you in love with Polly Espy? 29

15、 1 think shes a keen kid, he replied, but I dont know if youd call it love. Why? 30 Do you, I asked, have any kind of formal arrangement with her? I mean are you going steady or anything like that? 31 No. We see each other quite a bit, but we both have other dates. Why? 32 Is there, I asked, any oth

16、er man for whom she has a particular fondness? 33 Not that I know of. Why? 34 I nodded with satisfaction. In other words, if you were out of the picture, the field would be open. Is that right? 35 1 guess so. What are you getting at? 36 Nothing, nothing, I said innocently, and took my suitcase out o

17、f the closet. 37 Where are you going? asked Petey. 38 Home for the weekend. I threw a few things into the bag. 39 Listen, he said, clutching my arm eagerly, while youre home, you couldnt get some money from your old man, could you, and lend it to me so I can buy a raoon coat? 40 1 may do better than

18、 that, I said with a mysterious wink and closed my bag and left. 41 Look, I said to Petey when I got back Monday morning. I threw open the suitcase and revealed the huge, hairy, gamy object that my father had worn in his Stutz Bearcat in 1925. 42 Holy Toledo! said Petey reverently. He plunged his ha

19、nds into the raoon coat and then his face. Holy Toledo! he repeated fifteen or twenty times. 43 Would you like it? I asked. 44 Oh yes! he cried, clutching the greasy peltto him. Then a canny look came into his eyes. What do you want for it? 45 Your girl, I said, mincing no words. 46 Polly? he said i

20、n a horrified whisper. You want Polly? 47 Thats right. 48 He flung the coat from him. Never, he said stoutly. 49 I shrugged. Okay. If you dont want to be in the swim, I guess its your business. 50 I sat down in a chair and pretended to read a book, but out of the corner of my eye I kept watching Pet

21、ey. He was a torn man. First he looked at the coat with the expression of a waif at a bakery window. Then he turned away and set his jaw resolutely. Then he looked back at the coat, with even more longing in his face. Then he turned away, but with not so much resolution this time. Back and forth his

22、 head swiveled, desire waxing, resolution waning . Finally he didnt turn away at all; he just stood and stared with mad lust at the coat. 51 It isnt as though I was in love with Polly, he said thickly. Or going steady or anything like that. 52 Thats right, I murmured. 53 Whats Polly to me, or me to

23、Polly? 54 Not a thing, said I. 55 Its just been a casual kick -just a few laughs, thats all. 56 Try on the coat, said I. 57 He plied. The coat bunched high over his ears and dropped all the way down to his shoe tops. He looked like a mound of dead raoons. Fits fine, he said happily. 58 I rose from m

24、y chair. Is it a deal? I asked, extending my hand. 59 He swallowed. Its a deal, he said and shook my hand. 60 I had my first date with Polly the following evening. This was in the nature of a survey; I wanted to find out just how much work I had to do to get her mind up to the standard I required. I

25、 took her first to dinner. Gee, that was a delish (=delicious) dinner, she said as we left the restaurant. Then I took her to a movie. Gee, that was a marvy (=marvelous) movie, she said as we left the theater. And then I took her home. Gee, I had a sensaysh (=sensational) time, she said as she bade

26、me good night. 61 I went back to my room with a heavy heart. I had gravely underestimated the size of my task. This girls lack of information was terrifying. Nor would it be enough merely to supply her with information First she had to be taught to think. This loomed as a project of no small dimensi

27、ons, and at first I was tempted to give her back to Petey. But then I got to thinking about her abundant physical charms and about the way she entered a room and the way she handled a knife and fork, and I decided to make an effort. 62 I went about it, as in all things, systematically. I gave her a

28、course in logic. It happened that I, as a law student, was taking a course in logic myself, so I had all the facts at my finger tips. Polly, I said to her when I picked her up on our next date, tonight we are going over to the Knolland talk. 63 0o, terrif (=terrific), she replied. One thing I will s

29、ay for this girl: you would go far to find another so agreeable. 64 We went to the Knoll, the campus trysting place, and we sat down under an old oak, and she looked at me expectantly. What are we going to talk about? she asked. 65 Logic. 66 She thought this over for a minute and decided she liked i

30、t. Magnif (=magnificent), she said. 67 Logic, I said, clearing my throat, is the science of thinking. Before we can think correctly, we must first learn to recognize the mon fallacies of logic. These we will take up tonight. 68 Wow-dow! she cried, clapping her hands delightedly. 69 I winced, but wen

31、t bravely on. First let us examine the fallacy called Dicto Slmpliciter. 70 By all means, she urged, batting her lashes eagerly. 71, Dicto Simpliciter means an argument based on an unqualifiedgeneralization. For example: Exercise is good. Therefore everybody should exercise. 72 1 agree, said Polly earnestly. 1 mean exercise is wonderful. I mean it builds the body and everything. 73 Polly, I said gently, the argument is a fallacy. Exercise is good is an unqualified generalization. For instance, if you have