【每日阅读训练第四期——速度越障18系列】【18-11】文史哲

kudoucliff

大家好，

本期第二、三篇是同一篇文章的；第四、五篇是同一篇文章的一首一尾，第四篇后面的extension是中间，大家有兴趣可以阅读；标题拖黑可见


SPEED

[Time1]

8 FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO MISSED THE LUSITANIA

When the First World War began, in the summer of 1914, the Lusitania was among the most glamorous and celebrated ships in the world—at one time both the largest and fastest afloat. But the British passenger liner would earn a far more tragic place in history on May 7, 1915, when it was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland, with the loss of nearly 1,200 lives.


The Lusitania was not the first British ship to be torpedoed, and the German Navy had publicly vowed to destroy “every enemy merchant ship” it found in the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland. On the day the Lusitania set sail from New York, the German Embassy ran ads in U.S. newspapers, warning travelers to avoid liners flying the British flag.  But in the case of the Lusitania the warnings went largely unheeded, due in part to the belief that the powerful ship could outrun any pursuant. The ship's captain, W. T. Turner, offered additional reassurance. “It's the best joke I've heard in many days this talk of torpedoing,” he supposedly told reporters.


England and Germany had been at war for close to a year by that point, but the United States, whose citizens would account for about 120 of the Lusitania’s victims, had remained neutral; ships sailing under the stars and stripes would not be the deliberate targets of German torpedoes. Though the U.S. didn’t officially enter the war until 1917, the sinking of the Lusitania, and the propaganda blitz that followed, proved a major factor in swaying public opinion in that direction.


Among the prominent American victims were such luminaries of the day as the theatrical impresario Charles Frohman, the popular writer Elbert Hubbard and the very rich Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt. But the list of passengers who missed the Lusitania’s last voyage was equally illustrious. Ironically, it wasn’t the fear of a German U-boat attack that kept most of them off the doomed liner but more mundane matters, such as unfinished business, an uncooperative alarm clock or a demanding mistress.
【343】

[Time2]

A NUN COMMITS A HEIST, VISITING THE CAST OF “KIDS”

One of the effects of a tragedy like the Boston Marathon bombing is a jolting shift in perspective—suddenly we see our loved ones and our habits in all their fragility, and for a while it seems that we’ll never forget this heightened awareness and we’ll never let things go back to taken-for-granted normal. But of course things do go back, as they should. Most of us simply can’t maintain a lifestyle consistent with the fact that we’re constantly moving through a high-stakes world. In “The Prophets of Oak Ridge,” from last Monday’s Washington Post, Dan Zak writes about an eighty-two-year-old nun named Sister Megan Gillespie Rice who, in pursuit of a consistent life, and in accordance with a belief that the world can change in an instant for better or worse, broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex—one of America’s largest, and supposedly most secure sites for the manufacture and storage of weapons-grade enriched uranium. Zak gives this highly clickable heist story a sensitive and expansive treatment, pulling together threads of history, religion, and economics to examine the achievements and blind spots of totally focussed faith.


Blind spots play a large part in the bizarre and tragic story that won the National Magazine Award for reporting on Thursday. “18 Tigers, 17 Lions, 8 Bears, 3 Cougars, 2 Wolves, 1 Baboon, 1 Macaque, and 1 Man Dead in Ohio,” by Chris Heath, which appeared in GQ last February is, as the title suggests, the story of a massacre. (You probably remember the news item, or the unsettling photos, from 2011, when a man named Terry Thompson set free his large collection of exotic animals before killing himself.) Heath’s story is also a tale of slow, unchecked descent into a private darkness that was ultimately unleashed on the world in a piece of grim theatre.
【307】


[Time3]

At Narratively, a long-form outlet that launched last September, Caroline Rothstein revisits the cast of Harmony Korine’s 1995 film, “Kids,” which is infamous for its outlandish depiction of youth gone wild. Roger Ebert wrote that the characters in “Kids” “could have been raised in a zoo, educated only to the base instincts.” But the kids themselves, now grown, say “Harmony didn’t create this mysterious subculture of skateboarders in New York City. That was our lives. Minus the whole virgin hunter part of it.” None of the cast were actors when Korine started filming them. They were mostly stray and neglected young people, roaming Manhattan. They’re adults, now. Some of them are famous. Two of them are dead. Rothstein collects their stories and, along the way, pieces together a portrait of a moment in New York history that is relatively recent, and yet fading away.


Michelle Legro writes in The Believer about an odd turn-of-the-century aesthete named Sadakichi Hartmann. Born in Japan to a German father and Japanese mother, Hartmann’s great attempt at a ground-breaking artistic feat came in 1902, when he announced that he would stage a “perfume concert” called “A Trip to Japan in Sixteen Minutes,” in which he promised to transport an audience across foreign climes through a symphony of odors. The stunt, which attracted the gawking attention of the press, is one of those weird historical vignettes that make the past seem strange and distant. But the real story is Hartmann himself, who was not just a village eccentric, but a well-known member of the art scene of his day. He was friends with Ezra Pound. John Barrymore called him “a living freak…sired by Mephistopheles out of Madame Butterfly.” Walt Whitman, a mentor, thought he might be one of the great artists of his generation. And now his perfume concert is an amusing anecdote and he is some one we’ve never heard of—a minor martyr to the slow fade of memory and time.
【328】


[Time4]

Starving Settlers in Jamestown Colony Resorted to Cannibalism

The harsh winter of 1609 in Virginia’s Jamestown Colony forced residents to do the unthinkable. A recent excavation at the historic site discovered the carcasses of dogs, cats and horses consumed during the season commonly called the “Starving Time.” But a few other newly discovered bones in particular, though, tell a far more gruesome story: the dismemberment and cannibalization of a 14-year-old English girl.


“The chops to the forehead are very tentative, very incomplete,” says Douglas Owsley, the Smithsonian forensic anthropologist who analyzed the bones after they were found by archaeologists from Preservation Virginia. “Then, the body was turned over, and there were four strikes to the back of the head, one of which was the strongest and split the skull in half. A penetrating wound was then made to the left temple, probably by a single-sided knife, which was used to pry open the head and remove the brain.”


Much is still unknown about the circumstances of this grisly meal: Who exactly the girl researchers are calling "Jane" was, whether she was murdered or died of natural causes, whether multiple people participated in the butchering or it was a solo act. But as Owsley revealed along with lead archaeologist William Kelso today at a press conference at the National Museum of Natural History, we now have the first direct evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown, the oldest permanent English colony in the Americas. “Historians have gone back and forth on whether this sort of thing really happened there,” Owsley says. “Given these bones in a trash pit, all cut and chopped up, it's clear that this body was dismembered for consumption.”
【272】


Extension

It’s long been speculated that the harsh conditions faced by the colonists of Jamestown might have made them desperate enough to eat other humans—and perhaps even commit murder to do so. The colony was founded in 1607 by 104 settlers aboard three ships, the Susan Constant, Discovery and Godspeed, but only 38 survived the first nine months of life in Jamestown, with most succumbing to starvation and disease (some researchers speculate that drinking water poisoned by arsenic and human waste also played a role). Because of difficulties in growing crops—they arrived in the midst of one of the worst regional droughts in centuries and many settlers were unused to hard agricultural labor—the survivors remained dependent on supplies brought by subsequent missions, as well as trade with Native Americans.


By the winter of 1609, extreme drought, hostile relations with members of the local Powhatan Confederacy and the fact that a supply ship was lost at sea put the colonists in a truly desperate position. Sixteen years later, in 1625, George Percy, who had been president of Jamestown during the Starving Time, wrote a letter describing the colonists’ diet during that terrible winter. “Haveinge fedd upon our horses and other beastes as longe as they Lasted, we weare gladd to make shifte with vermin as doggs Catts, Ratts and myce…as to eate Bootes shoes or any other leather,” he wrote. “And now famin beginneinge to Looke gastely and pale in every face, thatt notheinge was Spared to mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those things which seame incredible, as to digge upp deade corpes outt of graves and to eate them. And some have Licked upp the Bloode which hathe fallen from their weake fellowes.”


Despite this and other textual references to cannibalism, though, there had never been hard physical evidence that it had occurred—until now. Kelso’s team discovered the girl’s remains during the summer of 2012. "We found a deposit of refuse that contained butchered horse and dog bones. That was only done in times of extreme hunger. As we excavated, we found human teeth and then a partial human skull," says Kelso.


Kelso brought them to Owsley for a battery of forensic tests, including microscopic and isotope analysis. “We CT scanned the bones, then replicated them as virtual 3D models and then put them together, piece by piece, assembling the skull,” Owsley says. Digitally mirroring the fragments to fill in the missing gaps allowed the team to make a 3D facial reconstruction despite having just 66 percent of the skull.


The researchers used this reconstruction, along with the other data, to determine the specimen was a female, roughly 14 years old (based on the development of her molars) and of British ancestry. Owsley says the cut marks on the jaw, face and forehead of the skull, along with those on the shinbone, are telltale signs of cannibalism. "The clear intent was to remove the facial tissue and the brain for consumption. These people were in dire circumstances. So any flesh that was available would have been used," says Owsley. "The person that was doing this was not experienced and did not know how to butcher an animal. Instead, we see hesitancy, trial, tentativeness and a total lack of experience."


He’s probably one of the researchers best qualified to make this judgment. As one of the country’s most prominent physical anthropologists, he’s analyzed many cannibalized skeletons from ancient history, and as an accomplished forensic investigator who works with the FBI, he’s also worked on much more recent cases, such as one of the victims of 1980s serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer. In total, he estimates that he’s examined more than 10,000 bodies during his career, oftentimes people who were killed in tragic circumstances, including victims of 9/11 and journalists who were kidnapped and murdered in Guatemala. Most of his time, though, is spent working on more inspiring cases, such as the 9,000-year-old “Kennewick Man” discovered in Washington State, and the mysterious remains of ancient Easter Islanders. “I love the moments when you come up with something that you're just totally in awe of," he told Smithsonian magazine when he was named one of “35 Who Made a Difference.” “Something that gives you an overwhelming sense of wow!”


【710】

[Time5]

Owsley speculates that this particular Jamestown body belonged to a child who likely arrived in the colony during 1609 on one of the resupply ships. She was either a maidservant or the child of a gentleman, and due to the high-protein diet indicated by his team’s isotope analysis of her bones, he suspects the latter. The identity of whoever consumed her is entirely unknown, and Owsley guesses there might have been multiple cannibals involved, because the cut marks on her shin indicate a more skilled butcher than whoever dismembered her head.


It appears that her brain, tongue, cheeks and leg muscles were eaten, with the brain likely eaten first, because it decomposes so quickly after death. There’s no evidence of murder, and Owsley suspects that this was a case in which hungry colonists simply ate the one remaining food available to them, despite cultural taboos. “I don’t think that they killed her, by any stretch,” he says. “It's just that they were so desperate, and so hard-pressed, that out of necessity this is what they resorted to.”


Kelso’s team of archaeologists will continue to excavate the fort, searching for other bodies that might help us learn about the conditions faced by some of the country’s first European colonists. This might be the first specimen that provides evidence for cannibalism, but Owsley is pretty sure there are more to come. Percy’s letter also describes how, as president of the colony, he tortured and burned alive a man who had confessed to killing, salting and eating his pregnant wife—so the remains of this woman, along with other victims of cannibalism, may still be waiting to be found underground. “It’s fairly convincing, now that we see this one, that this wasn’t the only case,” he says. “There are other examples mentioned here and there in the literature. So the only question is: Where are the rest of the bodies?”


【317】

OBSTACLE

Don’t Forget Down Under
Is the United States in danger of forgetting the ally it has in Australia?




SYDNEY—Odd things keep catching my eye here, simply because they look familiar. The small fortress island in the center of Sydney Harbour makes me think of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay; the Harbour Bridge reminds me of Golden Gate. Txhat San Francisco impression is reinforced by the city's Victorian houses, though the billboard-lined airport road reminded me for an instant of Houston. There is an echo of Chicago in some of the 1930s apartment buildings, as well as something very San Diego about all of the landscaping. But when I see a row of cockatoos on a fence—lovely white birds with bright yellow crests and hooked beaks—I know I'm in Australia.
Antipodean flora and fauna, Coca-Cola advertising, split-level housing, and yoga studios: Sydney feels, in my instant and impressionistic assessment, like an outpost of northern California that somehow floated into the South Pacific. It isn't, of course: It's the edge of a vast continent, with a history of its own. In the botanical gardens, a monumental aboriginal sculpture stands not far from the statue of an 18th-century British aristocrat. Both look like they own the place, and in different senses both once did. Still, even if Sydney's resemblance to an American city is superficial, the cultural links between our two countries are strong, as are the political ties—or so we have both assumed until now.
Certainly the United States has been Australia's most important strategic and military partner since Britain's de facto withdrawal from the region after World War II. The Australia New Zealand United States Security Treaty (ANZUS)—a pact discussed a lot more here than in Washington—sealed the arrangement more than 60 years ago. And certainly Australians think they need some alliances: Their "neighborhood" includes North Korea and its missiles, while China rattles sabers in the South China Sea. As a result, some Australians—like so many U.S. allies in so much of the world—are wondering aloud whether our hoary old relationship will last. "China's rise and its subsequent military modernization is changing the strategic order of our region," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Friday. "We have to be prepared."
In Australia there is a lot more underlying unease about the U.S. role in the region than the proliferation of Starbucks here would suggest. A large share of immigration into this country is now Asian; China has become Australia's biggest trading partner. Speaking privately, a politician here told me he was recently lobbied by a constituent who does an enormous amount of business with China: Why couldn't Australia pick an occasional fight with the United States—just a little, symbolic one—to show the Chinese that Australians aren't entirely in the American pocket? A bit of strategic distance from the United States might be good for trade, after all.
Nobody in mainstream politics takes that sort of thing seriously, or so I am assured. But the world of writers and scholars already includes people who think that Australia will eventually have to choose, in some form or another, between China and the United States. A much-discussed book published last year, The China Choice, argued that the United States should cede the role of "superpower" in Asia and strike a deal with China to co-manage the region. Some here think the book was meant to lay the ground for a new Australian "pivot" toward China. At the very least, the conversation reflects a fear that the United States might not be here forever and that a managed exit might be better than an abrupt one.
The Obama administration, as part of its own "pivot" toward Asia, has already tried to stem the tide, announcing a plan to create a de facto base in northern Australia. About 2,500 Marines are to be regularly rotated through. From there, in theory, they could mobilize quickly if trouble arose in Southeast Asia. But in practice, it's a tiny force with lukewarm congressional support and zero public awareness. Who would back them up if the Marines got in trouble? Who will keep the force funded? Australia doesn't feature in U.S. news coverage, except in sports, and isn't on anybody's political radar.
In this sense, Australia is a test case, not so much of American willpower but of the U.S. ability to think strategically, plan ahead, and keep allies on board. I've written about how short-term thinking and carelessness have weakened our traditional alliances in Europe, but Europe is closer; it took a trip here to teach me that the same could happen in the Pacific. Britain is said to have acquired its empire in a fit of absent-mindedness. Is it possible that the United States could lose its "empire," or at least its historic web of alliances, in a fit of absent-mindedness as well?
【797】

bjzixuan

首页~哦首页~

yangzexin

赞楼主，先占一楼
2'07"
L was the most famous ships in the world before WW I,it was torpedoed by German submarine when it planned to ship to US. Before that German had publised in US newspapser about this action while the captain took it as a joke.

Then L was torpedoed with some US victims, while US was still netural at this moment, among the victims there are blablabla (rich man, author of novel..........). Some people was escaped from this not due to afraid of the tradegy but bacause of other reasons blablabla (business ......)

1'32"
1'54"

1'40"
A 14 old English girls' body was encavated in Virginia, she was killed in 1609, seems somebody took the brain for consumtion. Much is still unknown, blablab .....

1'41"

3'48"

zxppx

谢谢cliff！
1.2-22
L，an English ocean liner, is among the most beautiful and spectacular ships in the world at its time. The captain of the ship declared that the ship was strong enough to endure any attack. However, when the first world war occured, Germany navy ruined L and killed 1,200 lifes in the ocean liner. Some of them are American, thus making the neutral country very angry.
2.2-07
Nevertheless, the similar tragdies were always happening in the history. Someone wrote a story about a massacre and owned a prize.
3.2-34
In the first paragraph, we can see that a firm,"Kids", and a coast where is very fresh and has some people with fundamental instincts. However, these people can understand a lot of things and think the life here is better than in New York City. Then in the second paragraph, H, a child of a German father and a Japanese mother, delcared that he would be a great artist. What's more, W was a mentor and very famous and talented person.
4.1-43
It is common that people find the bones of some animals in some old sites. However, a recent unexpected finding that the bone of a 14-year-old girl was discovered in an ancient English colony in America suggests the suspected consumption of girl during that time.  
5.4-31
In the history the tribe experienced very difficult time, such as the extreme drought. What's more, because of polluted water, a lot of people died. People here had to find everything to eat, but the drought and the ship sinking during the trade made them very hard to live. Scientists collected the remains of the bones of the person and used the modern technique to detect the uncompleted bones. As a result, they find out that the bones are belong to a 14-year-old girl. He's is a very experienced and excellent expertise. He's examined about 10,000 bodies during his career. In addition, he thinks his work can give he something very inspring.
6.2-09
They keep researching the body of the girl and find that the girl may be a daughter of a gentleman. It was possible that the colonists were so hungry that they ate the girl, but there was no related evidence. So researchers go on finding other evidence to understand the issue deeply and widely.
7.4-59
The author is surprised by the similar constructions between California and Australia, even though Australia has its own special historic buildings. However, when China become the largest trade companion of Australia,some people worry that Australia will find it difficult to make a balance between United States and China. Although Obama makes some efforts to maintain America status in Australia, it is difficult to make sure that such actions will be sufficient in the future.

huizhuo0309

占座！！！！！

1'59
1'58
2'05
1'16
extension 3'52
1'53
Obstacle 4'44

烟囱XXQ

先占个座

beckybei11

谢谢LZ,辛苦了
1：146-2&3：341-4&estension&5:627-obstacle:615
Some of the scenic spots in AU looks familiar to some places in US. The culture similarity makes people have this illusion. However, not only the culture relations between US and AU is strong, but also the political ties.
ANZUS is a very important trade union between the US and AU. However, with the China's raising, will the AU change its strageic order?
More immigrations from Asia especially from China come to AU, and China has became one of the largest trade partners of AU have made the relationship between CHN and AU more crutial than before. Some stragetic distance from US maybe a good step AU could take.
The mainstream politician seems do not care about the current situation. Some schaloars on the other hand, state that AU will have to chose between CHN and US one day.
Some even state that US will have to co-manage AU/asian-pacific with CHN in the visible future.
The Obama gov showed some signs of trying to strengthen the political tie between the AU and the US, but the truth is the AU is not in US political radar.
If the US gov still absebt minded to AU, US may loose more alliance in the future.

烟囱XXQ

3‘15“
the F ship was attacked by G and two countries had been at war for close to a year by that point.
3’42”
a big tragedy can lead to a change of people's perspective.
4‘00“
a film kid records the growth of some people.and ML portray a character and his life.
2’28”
in a starving stage a girl was eaten by someone and now it is still searched.
3‘10“
O found the further evidence about the child and K will continue to search for other bodies to
help learn more about the conditions of starvation.
obstacle
9’43”
a lot of things in A are similar to Am because there is a cultural link between them.
US has been A's most important strategic and military partner,while there is a lot more underlying
unease about the US role in the region than the proliferation of S here would suggest.
the Asia has become the biggest partner of Au so that the US began to take some measures to create
a defacto base in northern A.And in this sense A is a test but willpower of US.
今天号不在状态啊 感觉都读得不好

露比Alice

每天都尽量抽点时间坚持小分队吧 fighting
1.-2.26
L was a g british ship but also saw the tragedy in the first war.
2.2.00
The effects of a tragedy is jolting shift in perspective.

Lynsey玲

1-02:59
glamorous adj. 迷人的，富有魅力的
afloat adj. 在海上的；飘浮的；浸满水的；在传播的
       adv. 在海上；飘浮著；浸满水
torpedo  n. 鱼雷；水雷；油井爆破筒；[鱼]电鳐；[俚]职业杀手 vt. 破坏；用鱼雷袭击
propaganda n. 宣传；[宗]传道总会
blitz   n. 闪电战 vt. 以闪电战攻击 vi. 进行闪击
        adj. 闪击的；凌厉的
impresario  n. （意）（歌剧、乐团等的）演出者；经理人；乐队指挥，导演
L ship was tropedoed by German submarine,although it as a US ship was not the target of Germany.This tragedy is due to their unfearness and neglect to the German U-boat attack.
2-02:51
nun  n. 修女，尼姑
heist
uranium n. [化]铀
massacre  vt. 残杀；彻底击败
A nun who is in a persuit of consistent life,suggests that the world can change in an instant for better or worse.This lead to the establishement of the securoty site in Africa.

3-02:54
P1 introduce a film-Kids and the charaters in it.
P2 introduce the main character in Believer and compare it with the realstory of him.
4-03:10
A recent excavation reveals a phenomenoun of Cannibalism.
5-02:42
This part continue to analyze the finding of the recent excavation.