新視野大學(xué)英語(yǔ)綜合教程3 課文及課文翻譯Unit2

1、12None of us kids did. Mom and Dad refused to let us. They couldnt affordexpensive presents, and they didnt want us to think we werent as good as otherkids who, on Christmas morning, found all sorts offancy toys under the tree thatwere supposedly left by Santa Claus. So they told us all about how ot

2、her kidswere deceived by their parents, how the toys the grown-ups claimed were made bylittleelves wearing bell caps in theirworkshop at the North Pole actually hadlabels on them saying MADE IN JAPAN.3Try not to look down on those other children, Mom said. Its not their4We celebrated Christmas, but

3、usually about a week after December 25, whenyou could find perfectly goodbows and wrapping paper that people had thrown awayandChristmastreesdiscardedontheroadsidethatstillhadmostoftheirneedlesand even some silvertinsel hanging on them. Mom and Dad would give us a bag ofmarblesoradolloraslingshottha

4、thadbeenmarkedwaydowninanafter-Christmassale.5Dad lost his job at thegypsum mine after getting in an argument with theforeman, and when Christmas came that year, we had no money at all. On ChristmasEve,Dadtookeachofuskidsoutintothedesertnightoneby one.Ihadablanketwrapped around me, and when it was m

5、y turn, I offered to share it with Dad, buthe said no thanks. The cold never bothered him. I was five that year and I satnext to Dad and we looked up at the sky. Dad loved to talk about the stars. Heexplained to us how they rotated through the night sky as the earth turned. Hetaught us to identify t

6、heconstellations and how tonavigateby the North Star.Those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats forpeople like us who lived out in the wilderness. Rich city folks, hed say, livedin fancy apartments, but their air was so polluted they couldnt even see thestars. Wed hav

7、e to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them.6 Pick out your favorite star, Dad said that night. He told me I could haveit for keeps. He said it was my Christmas present. You cant give me a star!I said. Noone owns the stars. Thats said. No one else You just have to claim it befo

8、re anyone else does, like thaagofellowColumbusclaimed America for Queen Isabella. Claiming a star as your own has every bitas much logic to it.7 I thought about it and realized Dad was right. He was always figuring outthings like that.8 IcouldhaveanystarIwanted,Dadsaid,exceptBetelgeuseandRigel,becau

9、seLori and Brian had already laid claim to them.9 I looked up to the stars and tried to figure out which was the best one.You could see hundreds, maybe thousands or even millions,twinkling in the cleardesert sky. The longer you looked and the more your eyes adjusted to the dark,the more stars youd s

10、ee,layer after layer of them gradually becomingvisible.There was one in particular, in the west above the mountains but low in the sky,that shone more brightly than all the rest.11 Dadgrinned. Thats Venus, he said.Venus was only a planet, he went on,and prettydinky compared to real stars. She looked

11、 bigger and brighter becauseshewas muchcloser than thestars.Poor oldVenusdidnt even make her own light,Dad said. She shone only from reflected light. He explained to me that planetsglowed because reflected light was constant, and stars twinkled because theirlight pulsed.12 I like it anyway, I said.

12、I hadadmired Venus even before that Christmas.You could see it in the early evening, glowing on the western horizon, and ifyou got up early, you could still see it in the morning, after all the stars haddisappeared.13 What the hell, Dad said. Its Christmas. You can have a planet if youwant.15 That e

13、vening over Christmas dinner, we all discussed outer space. Dadexplainedlight yearsandblack holesandquasars and told us about the specialqualitiesofBetelgeuse,Rigel,andVenus.Betelgeusewasaredstarintheshoulderof the constellationOrion. It was one of the largest stars you could see in thesky, hundreds

14、 of times bigger than the sun. It had burned brightly for millionsof years and would soon become a supernova and burn out. I got upset that Lorihad chosen aclunker of a star, but Dad explained that soon meant hundreds ofthousands of years when you were talking about stars.16 Rigelwasabluestar,smalle

15、rthanBetelgeuse,Dadsaid,butevenbrighter.It was also in Orionit was his left foot, which seemed appropriate, becauseBrian was an extra-fast runner.17 Venus didnt have any moons or satellites or even a magnetic field, butitdidhaveanatmospheresortofsimilartoearths,exceptitwassuper-hotaboutfive hundred

16、degrees or more. So, Dad said, when the sun starts to burn outand earth turns cold, everyone here might want to move to Venus to get warm. Andtheyll have to get permission youre your descendants first.18 WelaughedaboutallthekidswhobelievedintheSanta mythandgotnothingfor Christmas but a bunch of chea

17、p plastic toys. Years from now, when all thejunk they got is broken and long forgotten, Dad said, youll still have your我從來(lái)不相信有圣誕老人。我們家的孩子沒(méi)人相信，因?yàn)榘职謰寢尣蛔屛覀兿嘈?。他們買不起昂貴的禮物，也不想讓我們覺(jué)得我們比不上別的孩子在圣誕節(jié)早上，他們從圣誕樹下找到各種各樣的新奇玩具，據(jù)說(shuō)是圣誕老人留下的。所以他們告訴我們其他的孩子怎樣被父母騙了，說(shuō)那些大人們所說(shuō)的由戴著有鈴鐺的帽子的小精靈在他們的北極工廠所做的玩具其實(shí)標(biāo)簽上都寫著“日本制造”?！氨M量不要看不起其

18、他小孩，”媽媽跟我們說(shuō)，“他們被洗腦了，以致相信那些愚蠢的童話，這并不是他們的錯(cuò)?！蔽覀円矐c祝圣誕節(jié)，但通常比12月25日晚大約一周。那時(shí)候可以找到人們丟棄的非常好的蝴蝶結(jié)、包裝紙及松針幾乎完好就被人們?nèi)釉诼放缘氖フQ樹，有些樹上甚至還掛著一些銀色的閃光金屬箔。爸爸和媽媽會(huì)給我們一包彩色玻璃彈子或一個(gè)洋娃娃或彈弓，那是在圣誕節(jié)后商品大減價(jià)時(shí)買來(lái)的。爸爸把我們輪流帶到荒野的夜幕中。我當(dāng)時(shí)裹著一床毯子，在輪到我的時(shí)候，我要把毯子分給爸爸一些，但爸爸說(shuō)不用，他從不怕冷。那年我五歲，我挨著爸爸坐下，我們一起抬頭看天空。爸爸很喜歡談?wù)撔切恰Ｋ嬖V我們隨著地球的自轉(zhuǎn)星星怎么旋轉(zhuǎn)、穿行于夜空。他教我們?cè)趺幢鎰e

19、星座，如果我們想與他們中的任何一個(gè)交換住所，那我們肯定是瘋了。那天晚上爸爸對(duì)我說(shuō)：“挑一顆你最喜歡的星星吧?！彼f(shuō)我可以一直擁有那顆星星，那是給我的圣誕禮物。我說(shuō)：“你不能給我星星，沒(méi)有人擁有這些星星。”爸爸說(shuō)：“對(duì)，其他任何人都不擁有這些星星。所以現(xiàn)在你只要在其他人之前聲稱它是你的，就像拉丁佬哥倫布替伊莎貝拉女王聲稱美洲是他們的那樣。聲稱一顆星星是你的，其中的道理與那個(gè)是完全一樣的?！辈假嚩饕呀?jīng)認(rèn)領(lǐng)了這兩顆。我抬頭看著星星，想挑出最好的那顆。在清朗的荒野的夜空中，有成百、成千甚至上萬(wàn)顆星星在閃爍?？吹臅r(shí)間越久你的眼睛就越適應(yīng)黑暗，你就可以看到更多的星星。漸漸地它們一層層地呈現(xiàn)在你的眼前。其中有一顆很特別，它在山的西面，但處于低空，顯得比其他所有的星星都