經(jīng)典美文背誦連載 The Language of Music.doc

經(jīng)典美文背誦連載一 The Language of Music 01 The Language of MusicA painter hangs his or her finished picture on a wall, and everyone can see it. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it is performed. Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for the composer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs as long and as arduous a training to become a performer as a medical student needs to become a doctor. Most training is concerned with technique, for musicians have to have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a ballet dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords would be inadequate without controlled muscular support. String players practice moving the fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the bow to and fro with the right arm - two entirely different movements.Singers and instrumentalists have to be able to get every note perfectly in tune. Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes are already there, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuners responsibility to tune the instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties: the hammers that hit the strings have to be coaxed not to sound like percussion, and each overlapping tone has to sound clear.This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student conductors: they have to learn to know every note of the music and how it should sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sounds with fanatical but selfless authority.Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in the language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in any century.01 音樂的語言畫家將已完成的作品掛在墻上，每個人都可以觀賞到。 作曲家寫完了一部作品，得由演奏者將其演奏出來，其他人才能得以欣賞。因為作曲家是如此完全地依賴于職業(yè)歌手和職 業(yè)演奏者，所以職業(yè)歌手和職業(yè)演奏者肩上的擔子可謂不輕。 一名學音樂的學生要想成為 一名演奏者，需要經(jīng)受長期的、嚴格的訓練，就象一名醫(yī)科的學生要成為一名醫(yī)生一樣。 絕 大多數(shù)的訓練是技巧性的。 音樂家們控制肌肉的熟練程度，必須達到與運動員或巴蕾舞演 員相當?shù)乃健?歌手們每天都練習吊嗓子，因為如果不能有效地控制肌肉的話，他們的聲 帶將不能滿足演唱的要求。 弦樂器的演奏者練習的則是在左手的手指上下滑動的同時，用 右手前后拉動琴弓-兩個截然不同的動作。歌手和樂器演奏者必須使所有的音符完全相同協(xié) 調(diào)。 鋼琴家們則不用操這份心，因為每個音符都已在那里等待著他們了。 給鋼琴調(diào)音是調(diào)音師的職責。 但調(diào)音師們也有他們的難處： 他們必須耐心地調(diào)理敲擊琴弦的音錘，不能讓 音錘發(fā)出的聲音象是打擊樂器，而且每個交疊的音都必須要清晰。如何得到樂章清晰的紋理是學生指揮們所面臨的難題：他們必須學會了解音樂中的每一個音及其發(fā)音之道。 他們還 必須致力于以熱忱而又客觀的權(quán)威去控制這些音符。除非是和音樂方面的知識和悟性結(jié)合起 來，單純的技巧沒有任何用處。 藝術(shù)家之所以偉大在于他們對音樂語言駕輕就熟，以致于 可以滿懷喜悅地演出寫于任何時代的作品。 經(jīng)典美文背誦連載二 Schooling and Education It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between schooling and education implied by this remark is important. Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling. Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning. The agents of education can range from a revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education quite often produces surprises. A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions. People are engaged in education from infancy on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integral part of ones entire life. Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on. The slices of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the workings of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that they are not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.上學與受教育 在美國，人們通常認為上學是為了受教育。 而現(xiàn)在卻有人認為孩子們上學打斷了他們 受教育的過程。 這種觀念中的上學與受教育之間的區(qū)別非常重要。 與上學相比，教育更具 開放性，內(nèi)容更廣泛。 教育不受任何限制。 它可以在任何場合下進行，在淋浴時，在工作 時，廚房里或拖拉機上。 它既包括在學校所受的正規(guī)教育，也包括一切非正規(guī)教育。 傳 授知識的人可以是德高望重的老者，可以是收音機里進行政治辯論的人們，可以是小孩子， 也可以是知名的科學家。 上學讀書多少有點可預見性，而教育往往能帶來意外的發(fā)現(xiàn)。 與 陌生人的一次隨意談話可能會使人認識到自己對其它宗教其實所知甚少。 人們從幼時起就 開始受教育。 因此，教育是一個內(nèi)涵很豐富的詞，它自始至終伴隨人的一生，早在人們上 學之前就開始了。 教育應成為人生命中不可缺少的一部分。 然而，上學卻是一個特定的形 式化了的過程。 在不同場合下，它的基本形式大同小異。 在全國各地，孩子們幾乎在同一 時刻到達學校，坐在指定的座位上，由一位成年人傳授知識，使用大致相同的教材，做作業(yè)， 考試等等。 他們所學的現(xiàn)實生活中的一些片斷，如字母表或政府的運作，往往受到科目范 圍的限制。 例如，高中生們知道，在課堂上他們沒法弄清楚他們社區(qū)里政治問題的真情， 也不會了解到最新潮的電影制片人在做哪些嘗試。 學校教育這一形式化的過程是有特定的 限制的。經(jīng)典美文背誦連載三 The Definition of Price The Definition of PricePrices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed among buyers. The price system of the United States is a complex network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor, professional, transportation, and public-utility services. The interrelationships of all these prices make up thesystem of prices. The price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad, complicated system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or less upon everything else. If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define price, many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller of a product or service or. In other words, that price is the money value of a product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction. This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For a complete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much more than the amount of money involved must be known. Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, returnprivileges, and other factors. In other words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the factors that comprise thetotal package being exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price.價格的定義價格決定資源的使用方式。 價格也是有限的產(chǎn)品與服務(wù)在買方中的配給 手段. 美國的價格系統(tǒng)是復雜的網(wǎng)狀系統(tǒng)，包括經(jīng)濟生活中一切產(chǎn)品買賣的價格，也包括 名目繁多的各種服務(wù)，諸如勞動力、專職人員、交通運輸、公共事業(yè)等服務(wù)的價格.所有這些價格的內(nèi)在聯(lián)系構(gòu)成了價格系統(tǒng)。任何一種個別產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)的價格都與這個龐大而復雜的系統(tǒng)密切相關(guān)，而且或多或少地受到系統(tǒng)中其它成份的制約。如果隨機挑選一群人，問問他們?nèi)绾味x價格，許多人會回答價格就是根據(jù)賣方提供的產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)，買方向其付出 的錢數(shù)。 換句話說，價格就是市場交易中大家認同的產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)的貨幣量。 該定義就其本 身來說自有其道理。但要獲得對價格在任何一樁交易中的完整認識，就必須考慮到大量 非貨幣因素的影響。 買賣雙方不但要清楚交易中的錢數(shù)，而且要非常熟悉交易物的質(zhì)量和 數(shù)量，交易的時間、地點，采用哪種形式付款，有怎樣的緩付和優(yōu)惠，對交易物的質(zhì)量保證、 交貨條款、退賠權(quán)利等等.也就是說，為了能估算索價，買賣雙方必須通曉構(gòu)成交易物價 格的通盤細節(jié)。經(jīng)典美文背誦連載四 Electricity ElectricityThe modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electriclights,radio, televisions, and telephones that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without them. When there is a power failure, people grope about in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the streets because there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent refrigerators.Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a little more than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been experimenting in this field for millions of years. Scientists are discovering more and more that the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity.All living cells send out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats, it sends out pulses of record; they form an electrocardiogram, which a doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working. The brain, too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an electroencephalogram. The electric currents generated by most living cells are extremely small - often so small that sensitive instruments are needed to record them. But in some animals, certain muscle cells have become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cells ar