提升英語作文的閱讀文章

衆所周知，作文是英語考試的重中之重，而英語作文要提升的方法就是要多練習多背誦，我們可以多看看一下英語的文章，寫的時候可以靈活套用的話，就可以快速提高作文水平了。

　　課外閱讀1

AN ODDITY has hidden for nearly a century in a dusty bowl just east of the Sierra Nevadamountains in California. Deep Springs is a two-year college and, also, a cattle-and-alfalfa ranch. Its 26 students share duties irrigating fields and riding the herd, but also fixing boilers andscrubbing pots, alongside reading Nietzsche and swotting at their maths problems. They pay notuition fees, and most finish their bachelor’s degrees at Harvard, Yale and the like.

近一個世紀以來，加州內華達山脈東部的凹地中藏匿了一座男校——深泉(Deep Springs),它是一座兩年學制的男校，學校中有長滿苜蓿的大農場，養了些牛。深泉中的26名學生分工勞動，有灌溉田地，放牧，看鍋爐，洗碗。課業方面，學生閱讀尼采，鑽研數學。學生無需交學費。大多數學生都會去哈佛、耶魯等名校完成大學學業。

And they are all male. The college has admitted no women as regular students since it wasfounded in 1917, in accordance with a trust established by Lucien Nunn, the tycoon whofounded it as a place “for promising young men”. The atmosphere is intellectual, rugged andascetic, and the college is a democratic body, where student-led committees decideadmissions, hire the faculty and mind most matters of policy.

這所學校由 Lucien Nunn於1917年出資創立，這位大亨要爲有潛力的年輕男性提供學習機會。自創立以來該校只收男生，從沒有女生被錄取。學校的校訓是學術、勞動、自制。深泉十分民主，學生領導的委員會有權決定招生，教職工應聘和學校政策的制定。

The big exception is over the question of co-education. Since the 1970s successive studentbodies have lobbied to admit women, only to be rebuffed by the college’s trustees. Onlyrecently, with the support of a newer tycoon from the class of 1980, have the co-ed supporterson the board felt able to press their case. In September 2011 they moved to make the change. Young women were invited to apply for the entering class of 2013.

但唯獨在招收女生這個問題上由不得學生委員會做主。自從20世紀70年代開始，連續幾屆的學生委員會都建議招收女生並對資助方進行遊說，但都招到了拒絕。直到最近，在得到一位曾是深泉1980屆校友的新資助人的支持後，董事會中支持男女同校的成員覺得時機來了。在2011年9月他們竭力推行男女同校，最終決定將在2013年第一次招收女生。

On January 8th that plan stumbled. A county court rejected the trustees’ motion to reinterpretthe college’s trust. A judge found that “young men” in fact means young men. More than 140 young women had applied by then, for perhaps only six places. They were summarily rejected.

但在1月8日，該計劃流產了。縣法院反對現任出資者重新解釋 Lucien Nunn的辦校宗旨。一位法官認爲“young men”指的就是年輕男性而不是年輕人。深泉只招收六名女生，而截止到8日，有超過140名女生申請。在招生流產後，學校草草的拒絕了所有申請。

Deep Springs is one of only four remaining (non-clerical) all-male colleges in America. Yetdespite the prevalence of co-education these days, the trustees face a legal mess if they try tomodify the terms of the trust. By all accounts, the place is flourishing as it is. That poses adifficulty for the trustees, and current students, who would claim that the founder’s intent isbeing thwarted by the all-male policy. If they cannot make that case quickly, Deep Springs willenter its second century in almost the same form in which it began.

深泉是美國現有的4所男校之一(非教會辦學)，雖然如今男女同校當道，不過據說，深泉發展勢頭強勁。現任出資者與學生都認爲只招收男生的政策與創立者建校初衷相悖。如果出資者改動出資協議的內容，就會面臨法律麻煩。如果他們不能儘快推行男女同校，那麼深泉就會以同樣的形式繼續發展下去。

　　課外閱讀2

It's the bedtime ritual every parent dreads - being asked to read the same book for theumpteenth time.

這是讓每個父母都頭疼的睡前慣例——被孩子央求把同一本書念上第N次。

But while the constant repetition might be mind-numbing for mum or dad, it is the best wayfor toddlers to learn new words, according to research.

研究指出，儘管不斷重複念同一本書可能讓媽媽或爸爸感覺頭腦麻木，但這是幼童學習新詞彙的最佳方法。

The findings suggest parents are wasting money by spending a fortune on huge bookcollections in the hope they will inspire their little ones.

研究結果顯示，那些爲了啓迪孩子心智而花很多錢購買收藏大量圖書的父母們是在浪費錢。

Instead, a small selection of favourites such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar or The Gruffalo willachieve far more.

事實上，買上幾本孩子們最喜歡的圖書，例如《好餓的毛毛蟲》或《咕嚕牛》，收效會大得多。

Dr Jessica Horst, of the University of Sussex’s WORD Lab devised an experiment to check howquickly three-year-olds could recognise and recall six new words.

薩塞克斯大學詞語實驗室的傑西卡?霍斯特博士設計了一個實驗，以瞭解三歲大的幼童能多快地識別和記憶六個新單詞。

The children were visited three times in a week at their homes.

研究人員每週去這些幼童的家做三次訪問。

One group heard the same story three times back-to-back each time and another was readthree different stories. All had the same amount of new words which appeared the samenumber of times.

其中一組幼童每次把同一個故事連續聽三遍，另一組幼童每次聽到三個不同的故事。這些故事都含有同樣多的新詞，這些新詞出現的次數也一樣多。

When researchers returned a week later, they found the children who heard the same story overand over had typically learned 3.6 of the new words.

當研究人員一週後回訪時，他們發現反覆聽同一個故事的小孩通常可以學到3.6個新單詞。

Those that were exposed to a variety of stories remembered only 2.6.

那些聽不同故事的小孩只能記住2.6個新單詞。

The also noted the ‘repetition’ group learned at a faster rate than those in the ‘variety’ group.

研究人員還注意到，“反覆”組的小孩學得比“多樣”組的小孩更快。

Dr Horst said: ‘We are showing that less is more, to a point. Obviously, the more times you readto a child and the more books you have will help them. But you don’t need to go crazy and buyevery single Thomas the Tank Engine book. Reading the same books over and over again helps.’

霍斯特博士說：“我們的研究顯示，在某種程度上，少即是多。顯然，你給孩子唸書的次數越多，你擁有的書越多，對孩子也會有所裨益。但你沒必要瘋狂地買下《火車頭托馬斯》系列的每一本書。反覆念同一本書將對孩子有益。”

Previous studies have found parents spend just 49 minutes doing things with their childreneach day. One in three don’t read to their children before putting them to bed at night. Yet 30 minutes of one-on-one literacy sessions can improve reading age by nearly two years in lessthan five months.

先前的研究發現，父母們平均每天只花49分鐘陪伴自己的小孩。三分之一的父母在晚上安頓小孩睡覺前不給他們唸書。然而，每天30分鐘一對一的唸書時間在不到五個月內就能讓小孩的閱讀年齡提早近兩年。