【每日阅读训练第二期——速度越障3系列】【3-10】

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速度一
Burl Ives, 1909-1995; The Famous American Actor and Singer Recorded Hundreds of Songs
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Burl Ives. He won a Grammy award for his music and an Oscar for his acting.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: In nineteen-fifty-eight Burl Ives appeared in the western movie, The Big Country. He played the part of a man who controls huge amounts of land. In the movie, he is not a nice man. He is mean and respects nothing but power. He causes problems for the people around him.
Burl Ives won the Academy Award Oscar that year as the Best Supporting Actor. People who knew him well say it was really great acting. That is because Burl Ives was one of the nicest men they had ever met. Burl Ives was not mean. He was a large, friendly man who loved to make people happy with his acting and especially with his music.
Except when he acting in a movie, Burl Ives always smiled. He loved making music and wanted other people to enjoy the music he made. If you listen closely to his voice, you can tell he was smiling when he sang his songs. Listen now as he sings "Blue Tail Fly."
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Burl Ives was one of seven children. He was born in June, nineteen-oh-nine in the middle western state of Illinois. Mister Ives said he began learning songs as a very little boy. His grandmother taught him to sing while she smoked tobacco in a pipe.
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速度二
As a young man, Burl wanted to teach history. So, he began attending Eastern Illinois Teacher's College in nineteen-twenty-seven. But he was not a very good student.
The president of the college told him one day he would never be a very good teacher. He said, "Burl why don't you look around a little. You are always singing, why don't you try that."
STEVE EMBER: Burl Ives said he did not even go back to his room to pick up his clothing. He just went down the road and never looked back. He took his guitar and began traveling around the United States.
He worked at many jobs. He also learned many songs. Songs from cowboys. Songs from farmers. Songs from people who worked on ships. Songs from people who worked in mines. He learned songs from anyone who would teach him something new.
Burl Ives went to New York City in the early nineteen-thirties. He was admitted to the famous Julliard School of Music to study. He also got jobs in New York. He sang in small eating and drinking places. He sang the songs he had learned. By nineteen-thirty-eight he was performing in theaters. He was singing on the radio and was part of a group called The Weavers, which became famous.
He began recording the folk songs he had learned. Critics said no one ever sung them better. He recorded "Blue Tail Fly" and made it famous. Another of his songs that became very popular was called, "Big Rock Candy Mountain." The song is a funny story about a homeless man who tells of a place where you do not have to work, where food is free and tobacco is free. It is a place called Big Rock Candy Mountain.
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速度三
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:
Songs like "Big Rock Candy Mountain" could be heard on the Burl Ives radio program each week. The radio program was called The Wayfarin' Stranger. It was first broadcast in nineteen-forty. Burl Ives had recorded many songs but he did not have a major hit until nineteen-forty-seven. That song was "Lavender Blue."
STEVE EMBER: During the nineteen fifties, Burl Ives recorded hundreds of songs on many albums. He also began serious movie work. He had played the part of Big Daddy in the famous Tennessee Williams play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway in New York City.
He was asked to play the same part in the movie of the same name. Movie experts praised his powerful performance as Big Daddy. The movie was released in nineteen-fifty-eight, the same year he won his Oscar for the movie Big Country.
In nineteen-sixty-one, Burl Ives recorded a song that became another major hit. It made the top ten list of hit songs in country and western and popular music. The song was "Little Bitty Tear."
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: "Little Bitty Tear" was followed a year later with another hit, "It's Just My Funny Way of Laughin." The song earned Burl Ives a Grammy Award that year for Best Country and Western Recording.
Burl Ives never seemed to slow down. He was always extremely busy. He had another hit record in nineteen-sixty-four with his recording of " Pearly Shells." And, while he was recording songs for adults, he was also recording songs for children.
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速度四
STEVE EMBER: It is his songs for children that will perhaps keep Burl Ives' memory alive for many years to come. His most famous are two Christmas songs, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer," and "Frosty the Snowman."
These songs were used in cartoon movies first shown on American television in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. Burl Ives provided the voice of some of the animals and people. He also sang most of the songs. A snowman in one of the movies even looks like Burl Ives.
Both of these moves are still shown on television during the Christmas holiday season each year. They have become Christmas traditions. Here, Burl Ives sings "Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer."
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Burl Ives never really retired. He moved to the northwestern state of Washington in his last years, but he continued to sing as long as he could. He died of cancer on April Fourteenth, nineteen-ninety-five. He was eighty-five years old.


Words and Their Stories: A Chip on Your Shoulder
Every week at this time we tell the story of words and expressions used in American English. Some of them are old. Some are new. Together, they form the living speech of the American people.
Some popular expressions are a mystery. No one is sure how they developed. One of these is the expression, carry a chip on your shoulder. A person with a chip on his shoulder is a problem for anybody who must deal with him. He seems to be expecting trouble. Sometimes he seems to be saying, "I'm not happy about anything, but what are you going to do about it?"
A chip is a small piece of something, like a chip of wood. How did this chip get on a person's shoulder? Well, experts say the expression appears to have been first used in the United States more than one hundred years ago.
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速度五
One writer believes that the expression might have come from an old saying. The saying warns against striking too high, or a chip might fall into your eye. That could be good advice. If you strike high up on a tree with an axe, the chip of wood that is cut off will fall into your eye. The saying becomes a warning about the dangers of attacking people who are in more important positions than you are.
Later, in the United States, some people would put a real chip on their shoulder as a test. They wanted to start a fight. They would wait for someone to be brave enough to try to hit it off.

The word chip appears in a number of special American expressions. Another is chip off the old block. This means that a child is exactly like a parent.
This expression goes back at least to the early sixteen hundreds. The British writer of plays, George Colman, wrote these lines in seventeen sixty-two. "You'll find him his father's own son, I believe. A chip off the old block, I promise you!"
The word chip can also be used in a threatening way to someone who is suspected of wrongdoing. An investigator may say, "We're going to let the chips fall where they may." This means the investigation is going to be complete and honest. It is also a warning that no one will be protected from being found guilty.
Chips are often used in card games. They represent money. A poker player may, at any time, decide to leave the game. He will turn in his chips in exchange for money or cash.
This lead to another meaning. A person who finished or died was said to have cashed in his chips. Which is a way of saying it is time for me to finish this program.
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越障
One problem, two visions (part I)
IT SEEMS odd, at first sight, to see the markets taking so much hope from two speeches in two days - one by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and the other by Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel - that revealed more differences than agreement on how to resolve the euro zone's debt crisis.
Perhaps it is the fact that both say the European Union's treaties should be changed, and any agreement on any subject is good news. Or perhaps it is the hope that, whatever they say in their opening bids, they will come up with enough of a deal at the next European summit on December 8th-9th to allow the European Central Bank to deploy its “big bazooka”.
Then again, markets have often rallied ahead of summits in the expectation of an agreement, only to be disappointed within days, or even hours, of the latest half-step being announced.
Neither Mr Sarkozy nor Mrs Merkel offered any real detail of what should be included in a revision of the treaties. But even their vague outlines reveal contrasting philosophies. I give a fuller analysis of the speeches in the next post (here). In summary:
- Mr Sarkozy places the emphasis on “solidarity” among European states (ie, joint Eurobonds, and no defaults or debt-restructuring after Greece), while Mrs Merkel gives priority to budgetary discipline and rules.
- Mr Sarkozy urges the European Central Bank to act; Mrs Merkel is jealous of guarding its independence
- Mr Sarkozy wants to create a hard core of euro-zone countries within the European Union; Mr Merkel wants to include as many non-euro states as possible
- Mr Sarkozy wants to Europe to integrate through the action of leaders (reproducing France's presidential system, with lots of discretion for the executive); Mrs Merkel favours more independent institutions like the European Commission and the European Court of Justice (more akin to Germany's federal structure, which retricts politicians' leeway)
These differences should come as little surprise. It has been ever thus in the EU. The Franco-German motor is not made for harmonious co-operation, but rather to manage and contain the many disagreements between Paris and Berlin.
Still, something has changed recently. In the past year, Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy (“Merkozy”, as they are known) have tried to resolve their differences behind closed doors, and then issued a joint declaration setting out their position ahead of European gatherings.
This happened at the Franco-German summit in Deauville in October last year, when they agreed that private creditors should share the pain of rescuing collapsed economies. A year later, the two leaders claimed to have found “total accord” when it was patently untrue: they soon had to postpone the EU summit in October, and then held a second one days later, in order to overcome their differences over a second Greek package and how to boost the euro zone's rescue fund.
So now, just a week before a key summit of European leaders, Merkozy chose to set out their stalls separately, before meeting at a Franco-German summit on December 5th, that may find some kind of compromise.
Mr Sarkozy's appearance was, in effect, a campaign speech, with many barbs aimed at the opposition Socialist party as well as exhortations to fellow Europeans. He spoke at a party rally in Toulon, where in 2008 he had vowed to reform capitalism. Now he says it is time to reform the European Union. Mrs Merkel, by contrast, gave a matter-of-fact speech in the Bundestag to outline her negotiating position at the forthcoming summit.
In a sense, neither of these speeches really matters. Any new treaty, even a limited one, will take month to negotiate and, probably, years to ratify. What is important, in the short term, is whether European leaders come up a sufficiently credible promise to reform, and rein in those who break budgetary rules, to allow the European Central Bank to use its “big bazooka” more freely without fear of moral hazard.
Earlier this week, the ECB president, Mario Draghi, hinted that he might be willing to do so, if euro-zone countries reached a new "fiscal compact". He did not define it, and did not say treaty change was needed. Another hopeful sign is that Germany, while rejecting permanent Eurobonds, is now floating a proposal to mutualise, probably temporarily, all excesive debt above 60% of GDP.
This is not quite joint Eurobonds, but may set a precedent for them. In any case, for the first time Germany may be saying ja to something after months of nein. That would be something to cheer.
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欲知part II  请浏览
http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2011/12/euro-crisis-0

单项攻克
Passage 60 (60/63)(OG-27)
Until recently, scientists did not know of a close vertebrate analogue to the extreme form of altruism observed in eusocial insects like ants and bees, whereby individuals cooperate, sometimes even sacrificing their own opportunities to survive and reproduce, for the good of others. However, such a vertebrate society may exist among underground colonies of the highly social rodent Heterocephalus glaber, the naked mole rat.
A naked mole rat colony, like a beehive, wasp’s nest, or termite mound, is ruled by its queen, or reproducing female. Other adult female mole rats neither ovulate nor breed. The queen is the largest member of the colony, and she maintains her breeding status through a mixture of behavioral and, presumably, chemical control. Queens have been long-lived in captivity, and when they die or are removed from a colony one sees violent fighting for breeding status among the larger remaining females, leading to a takeover by a new queen.
Eusocial insect societies have rigid caste systems, each insect’s role being defined by its behavior, body shape, and physiology. In naked mole rat societies, on the other hand, differences in behavior are related primarily to reproductive status (reproduction being limited to the queen and a few males), body size, and perhaps age. Smaller non-breeding members, both male and female, seem to participate primarily in gathering food, transporting nest material, and tunneling. Larger nonbreeders are active in defending the colony and perhaps in removing dirt from the tunnels. Jarvis’ work has suggested that differences in growth rates may influence the length of time that an individual performs a task, regardless of its age.
Cooperative breeding has evolved many times in vertebrates, but unlike naked mole rats, most cooperatively breeding vertebrates (except the wild dog, Lycaon pictus) are dominated by a pair of breeders rather than by a single breeding female. The division of labor within social groups is less pronounced among other vertebrates than among naked mole rats, colony size is much smaller, and mating by subordinate females may not be totally suppressed, whereas in naked mole rat colonies subordinate females are not sexually active, and many never breed.

1. Which of the following most accurately states the main idea of the passage?
(A) Naked mole rat colonies are the only known examples of cooperatively breeding vertebrate societies.
(B) Naked mole rat colonies exhibit social organization based on a rigid caste system.
(C) Behavior in naked mole rat colonies may well be a close vertebrate analogue to behavior in eusocial insect societies.
(D) The mating habits of naked mole rats differ from those of any other vertebrate species.
(E) The basis for the division of labor among naked mole rats is the same as that among eusocial insects.

2. The passage suggests that Jarvis’ work has called into question which of the following explanatory variables for naked mole rat behavior?
(A) Size
(B) Age
(C) Reproductive status
(D) Rate of growth
(E) Previously exhibited behavior

3. It can be inferred from the passage that the performance of tasks in naked mole rat colonies differs from task performance in eusocial insect societies in which of the following ways?
(A) In naked mole rat colonies, all tasks ate performed cooperatively.
(B) In naked mole rat colonies, the performance of tasks is less rigidly determined by body shape.
(C) In naked mole rat colonies, breeding is limited to the largest animals.
(D) In eusocial insect societies, reproduction is limited to a single female.
(E) In eusocial insect societies, the distribution of tasks is based on body size.

4. According to the passage, which of the following is a supposition rather than a fact concerning the queen in a naked mole rat colony?
(A) She is the largest member of the colony.
(B) She exerts chemical control over the colony.
(C) She mates with more than one male.
(D) She attains her status through aggression.
(E) She is the only breeding female.

5. The passage supports which of the following inferences about breeding among Lycaon pictus?
(A) The largest female in the social group does not maintain reproductive status by means of behavioral control.
(B) An individual’s ability to breed is related primarily to its rate of growth.
(C) Breeding is the only task performed by the breeding female.
(D) Breeding in the social group is not cooperative.
(E) Breeding is not dominated by a single pair of dogs.

6. According to the passage, naked mole rat colonies may differ from all other known vertebrate groups in which of the following ways?
(A) Naked mole rats exhibit an extreme form of altruism.
(B) Naked mole rats are cooperative breeders.
(C) Among naked mole rats, many males are permitted to breed with a single dominant female.
(D) Among naked mole rats, different tasks are performed at different times in an individual’s life.
(E) Among naked mole rats, fighting results in the selection of a breeding female.

7. One function of the third paragraph of the passage is to
(A) state a conclusion about facts presented in an earlier paragraph
(B) introduce information that is contradicted by information in the fourth paragraph
(C) qualify the extent to which two previously mentioned groups might be similar
(D) show the chain of reasoning that led to the conclusions of a specific study
(E) demonstrate that of three explanatory factors offered, two may be of equal significance
1. C 2. B 3. B 4. B 5. E      6. A 7. C

xeyyxzty

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two speeches given by 萨克奇和默克尔 about the same thing--the crisis Europe is facing
but they give two different ideas
e.g.--French: 限制欧盟成员国数量；German:尽可能多吸收国家加入
     --French:希望ECB行动；German:不希望再理会希腊债务危机（没记错吧？）
in fact, the two people have different opinions from the beginning.
for example, 2007......they usually compromise closed the door, and give the public an agreement.
萨克奇在ＸＸ给出这个演讲，更像是宣传、鼓动
默克尔则是在向国民陈述一个事实
in fact, what they say doesn't matter. the most important thing is to reach an agreement
president of ECB says he would like to do a favor if leaders of Europe come up with a measure to deal with the situation

gray0505

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ugly5552000

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It is odd that confronting with the debt crisis in Europe, the French president Sarkozy and the German chancellor Merkel showed more disagreements rather than agreement on how to tackle with the crisis. Firstly, the point fell on the European Central Bank’s “big bazooka”. Mr. Sarkozy urged the ECB to act, while Mrs. Merkel insisted the ECB should keep its independent position. When comes to the agreed revolution of European Treaties, Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel still held different opinions: Mr. Sarkozy emphasized on the solidarity of Europe members, Mrs. Merkel gave priority to the budget disciplines and rules; Mr. Sarkozy wanted to create a hard-corn of countries in European Union, Mrs. Merkel wanted to include non-European countries as many as possible; Mr. Sarkozy wanted to integrate Europe by the cooperation among states leaders, Mrs. Merkel wanted to keep the independence of European institutions such as European Commission and European Court of Justice. Even there are many disagreements, and the revolution of Treaties might need years to implement, however, the attitude and actions of helping Europe to pass the crisis are still regarded optimistic

阅读理解正确率50%都不到，碉堡了。。。。

fox0923

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shevit

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开会了，越障等回来

zz42050524

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越障等下做

Poetry

【越障】
1.  It seems odd that market took hope from 2 speeches from Sarkozy and Merkel
    Perhaps beacause  ... any change would be helpful..
   Then they have been disappointed again
2. In fact, no detail of agreement was contained in their speeches
   Analyse the philosophical contrasting points：
  Skzy: emphasize on solidarity; Mrkl: give priorty to budgetary discipline
             ECB should take action;           jealous of its independent;
             hard core;  ...                          include non-euro members; ...
Little surprise at the differences --> It has ever been thus in EU.
3. 转折 "still"：recently, they got a "total accord"  by putting off the Summit and trying to find a compromise. Then their opinions in speechies were still different: Skzy: reform the EU; Mrkl: negotiating
4. neither of their speeches matters (because it will take ... to ratify..) What does matter is that whether they can come up with a credible treaty to rein in..
5. Two hopeful signs: i. the president of ECU annouced that they would use XX if.. fiscal compact
                               ii. Skzy rejected permanent Eurobonds
   结论 provide a precedent.... so it would be something cheerful

很邻家

1.    eople expected too much on the speeches of the France’s president and the Germany’s chancellor.
2.    However, they hold contrary opinions.
3.    artly, neither of the speeches really matters. Because any treaty needs time to reach a consensus.
4.    The most important in short time is a credible promise to reform among euro countries. Optimistically, some president hint their willings.

坨坨元

哦耶耶耶，我来啦~
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越障
M和S 发表了两篇演讲。
提出问题： 这两篇演讲是否真的能带来好的局面呢？
分析问题：通过对比M和S 的演讲，和他们在德法summit召开之前的作为得出：S和M 尽管表面上想达成德法立场和观点一致，但是实际上法国想成为欧洲的core，而德国想让欧洲走德国模式——S和M 立场并不一致
得出结论：S和M 的演讲无足轻重，关键是能否能做出改革，欧洲银行能否有所作为。结尾处谈到，德国愿意发行60%GDP 价值的债券，这一点是值得欣慰的。