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Americans and the Land

Americans and the Land

Americans and the land By JohnSteinbeck

I have often wondered at the savagery and thoughtlessness with which our early settlers approached this rich continent. They came at it as though it were an enemy, which of course it was. They burned the forests and changed the rainfall; they swept the buffalo from the plains, blasted the streams, set fire to the grass, and ran a reckless scythe through the virgin and noble timber. Perhaps they felt that it was limitless and could never be exhausted and that a man could move on to new wonders endlessly. Certainly there are many examples to the contrary, but to a large extent the early people pillaged the country as though they hated it, as though they held it temporarily and might be driven off at any time.

This tendency toward irresponsibility persists in very many of us today; our rivers are poisoned by reckless dumping of sewage and toxic industrial wastes, the air of our cities is filthy and dangerous to breathe from the belching of uncontrolled products from combustion of coal, coke, oil, and gasoline. Our towns are girdled with wreckage and the debris of our toys—our automobiles and our packaged pleasures. Through uninhibited spraying against one enemy we have destroyed the natural balances our survival requires. All these evils can and must be overcome if America and Americans are to survive; but many of us still conduct ourselves as our ancestors did, stealing from the future for our clear and present profit….

On the East Coast, and particularly in New England, the colonists farmed meager lands close to their communities and to safety. Every man was permanently on duty for the defense of his family and his village; even hunting parties went into the forest in force, rather like raiders than hunters, and their subsequent quarrels with the Indians, resulting in forays and even massacres, remind us that the danger was very real. A man took his gun along when he worked the land, and the women stayed close to their thick-walled houses and listed day and night for the signal of alarm. The towns they settled were permanent, and most of them exist today with their records of Indian raids, of slaughter, of scalpings, and of punitive counter-raids. The military leader of the community became the chief authority in time of trouble, and it was a long time before danger receded and the mystery could be explored.

After a time, however, brave and forest-wise men drifted westward to hunt, to trap, and eventually to bargain for the furs which were the first precious negotiable wealth America produced for trade and export. Then trading posts were set up as centers of collection and the exploring men moved up and down the rivers and crossed the mountains, made friends for mutual profit with the Indians, learned the wilderness techniques, so that these explorer-traders soon dressed, at, and generally acted like the indigenous people around them. Suspicion lasted a long time, and was fed by clashes sometimes amounting to full-fledged warfare; but by now these Americans attacked and defended as the Indians did.

For a goodly time the Americans were travelers, moving about the country collecting its valuables, but with little idea of permanence; their roots and their hearts were in the towns and the growing cities along the eastern edge. The few who stayed, who lived among the Indians, adopted their customs and some took Indian wives and were regarded as strange and somehow treasonable creatures. AS for their half-breed children, while the tribe sometimes adopted them they were unacceptable as equals in the eastern settlements.

Then the trickle of immigrants became a stream, and the population began to move westward—not to grab and leave but to settle and live, they thought. The newcomers were of peasant stock and they had their roots in a Europe where they had been landless, for the possession of land was the requirement and the proof of a higher social class than they had known.In America they found beautiful and boundless land for the taking—and they took it.

It is little wonder that they went land-mad, because there was so much of it. They cut and burned the forests to make room for crops; they abandoned their knowledge of kindness to the land in order to maintain its usefulness. When they had cropped out a piece they moved on, raping the country like invaders. The topsoil, held by roots and freshened by leaf-fall, was left helpless to the spring freshets, stripped and eroded with the naked bones of clay and rock exposed. The destruction of the forests changed the rainfall, for the searching clouds could find no green and beckoning woods to draw them on and milk them. The merciless nineteenth century was like a hostile expedition for loot that seemed limitless. Uncountable buffalo were killed, stripped of their hides, and left to rot, a reservoir of permanent food supply eliminated. More than that, the land of the Great Plains was robed of the manure of the herds. Then the plows went in and ripped off the protection of the buffalo grass4 and opened the helpless soil to quick water and slow drought and the mischievous winds that roamed through the Great Central Plains. There has always been more than enough desert in America; the new settlers, like overindulged children, created even more.

(完整版)新人教版Book4Unit2WorkingtheLand课文

Unit 2 Working the land Part I a Pioneer for all People Although he is one of China’s most famous scientists, Yuan Longping consider s himself a farmer, for he works the land to do his research. Indeed, his sunburnt face and arms and his slim, strong body are just like those of millions of Chinese farmers, for whom he has struggle d for the past five decade s. Dr Yuan Longping grows what is called super hybrid rice. In 1974, he became the first agricultural pioneer in the world to grow rice that has a high output. This special strain of rice makes it possible to produce one-third more of the crop in the same field s. Now more than 60% of the rice produced in China each year is from this hybrid strain. Born in 1930, Dr Yuan graduate d from Southwest Agricultural College in 1953. Since then, finding ways to grow more rice has been his life goal. As a young man, he saw the great need for increasing the rice output. At that time, hunger was a disturbing problem in many parts of the countryside. Dr Yuan search ed for a way to increase rice harvest s without expand ing the area of the fields. In 1950, Chinese farmers could produce only fifty million tons of rice. In a recent harvest, however, nearly two hundred million tons of rice was produce d. These increased harvests mean that 22% of the world’s people are fed from just 7% of the farmland in China. Dr Yuan is now circulating his knowledge in India, Vietnam and many other less developed countries to increase their rice harvests. Thanks to his research, the UN has more tool s in the battle to rid the world of hunger. Using his hybrid rice, farmers are producing harvests twice as large as before. Dr Yuan is quite satisfied with his life. However, he doesn’t care about being famous. He feel s it gives him less freedom to do his research. He would much rather keep time for his hobbies. He enjoy s listening to violin music, playing mah-jong, swimming and reading. Spend ing money on himself or lead ing a comfortable life also means very little to him. Indeed, he believe s that a person with too much money has more rather than fewer trouble s. He therefore gives millions of yuan to equip others for their research in agriculture. Just dream ing for things, however, cost s nothing. Long ago Dr yuan had a dream about rice plants as tall as sorghum. Each ear of rice was as big as an ear of corn and each grain of rice was as huge as a peanut. Dr Yuan awoke from his dream with the hope of producing a kind of rice that could feed more people. Now, many years later, Dr Yuan has another dream: to export his rice so that it can be grown around the globe. One dream is not always enough, especially for a person who loves and cares for his people.

Unit2Workingtheland

Unit2Workingtheland unit 2 working the land teaching aims:1. target languagea.words and phrasessunburn, struggle, super, expand, circulate, equip, export, rid ... of, be satisfied with, lead a ... life, search for, would rather, thanks to, with the hope of, rather than b. important sentencesthis special strain of rice makes it possible to produce one-third more of the crop in the same fields. p10he cares little about spending the money on himself or leading a comfortable life. p102. ability goals enable ss to learn more about agriculture, countryside and farming. by talking they can exchange their experience with each other. by reading they will realize the role that agriculture plays in human life. in fact this world faces a serious problem —starvation. so after reading the passage about dr yuan students will know the importance of his achievement to man. of course they will learn from dr yuan some noble character.3. learning ability goals help ss learn how to describe dr yuan longping including his personality.teaching important points a. help to comprehend the text and grasp the main idea of the text.b. grasp the usage of some words and expressions.c. how to

Unit2 Working the land 教案

Unit2Working the land Teaching objectives 1.Knowledge objectives (1).important words Sunburt.decade.super.output.crop.hunger.disturb.expand.circulate. Vietnam.battle.freedom.therefore.equip.grain.export. (2).important phrases Struggle for, Thanks to, Ri d…of, Be satisfied with, would… rather. (3).important sentence pattern Finding ways to grow more rice has been his life goal. Just dreaming for things, however, costs nothing. 2. Ability objectives Improve students’ reading ability through reading activities. 3. Affective objectives (1) After learning the passage, students are expected to know about Yuan Longping and his quality. (2)Enable students to know Dr Yuan’s key secret to success. Teaching important points 1. List the words .phases and sentences listed above. 2. Enable students to improve their reading comprehension. Teaching difficult points

Unit2《Working_the_land》教案

Unit2 Working the land Period 1 Warming up and pre-reading. Step 1 Lead-in. Poem By Li Shen Farmers weeding at noon,Sweat down the field soon. Who knows food on a tray,Due to their toiling day. Then let one student recite the poem in Chinese. Step 2 Warming up by questioning Hello, everyone. We shall read about man who works the land today. Have you ever grown any plants? If not, what kind of plant would you like to grow? How will you grow it? (For reference: Mr. Li, I worked with my father in the rice field last year. We grow hybrid rice and use animal wastes to make the soil rich.) Has anyone of you ever been to the countryside? What did you do there? (For reference: I went to Chuankou the day before yesterday. It is a small mountain village 75 li n orth of Beijing. I went there to visit my uncle’s family. I like that small beautiful village very much. ) Who are from a farmer’s family? What do you know about farming? Step 3 Pre-reading and talking Questioning and answering Rice is main food in South China. What do you think would happen if tomorrow there was suddenly no rice to eat?

UnitWorkingtheland练习题及答案

U n i t W o r k i n g t h e l a n d练习题及答案 集团标准化工作小组 [Q8QX9QT-X8QQB8Q8-NQ8QJ8-M8QMN]

Unit 2 Working the land 一. 单词和短语翻译(每小题1分) 1. 发现,发觉 2. 国籍 3. 毕业于 4. 生产,制造 5. 坚持;要求 6. 评论,议论 二. 用所给词的适当形式填空(共10小题;每小题1分,满分10分) 1. It is no use_____________ ( complain ). 2. We succeeded in____________ (finish) the task ahead of time. 3. His ____________ (late) for class made his teacher very angry. 4. John finished_____________ (read) the book yesterday. 5. _____________ (collect) information is very important to businessmen. 6. Tom could not help____________ (jump) when he heard the news. 7. I should say sorry to Kate. I regret____________ (refuse) to help her that day. 8. Everybody was made unhappy because he insisted on____________ (stop) the work. 9. __________ (do) morning exercises is very important to us. 10. It is not worth___________ (see) the movie for the second time. 三. 单词拼写和短语填空。根据下列句子及所缺单词的首字母或汉语意思,写 出单词的正确形式。(共27小题;每空1分,满分31分) 1. A c________ change takes place in paper when it burns. 2. We must r________ ourselves of these old ideas. 3. Not having had food for over forty hours, we were all weak from h_________. 4. The baby is hungry but it is too young to ______ (喂养) itself yet. 5. It was a new form of ________ (细菌) and nobody knew how it would affect humans. 6. The cookies are made from g________ and fruit. 7. Farmers consider rabbits to be p________, because they destroy some crops they grow. 8. The violent film is not s________ for children. 9. This food provides the ________(营养) your dog needs. 10. The average o ________ of the factory is 20 cars a day. 11. Many African children die of h_________ because of lack of food. 12. Sydney's population e__________rapidly in the 1960s. 13. Look, the fish are s__________for survival because the water level has dropped in the lake. 14. Yesterday 1 bought 10 flavors of ice-cream---enough to s______my roommates. 15. I am a bit c _ . Is that her husband or her son she is with

Unit 2 working the land基础测试题

Unit 2 working the land基础测试题 姓名________ 班级__________ 得分______________ 一.单词拼写(每个1分,共15分) 1. He ________________(挣扎) to his feet and dragged slowly ahead. 2. The________________(令人不安的) news made him disturbed. 3. He is ________________(迷惑) about his future. 4. He________________(后悔) that he had missed the lecture by Professor Smith. 5. Water ________________(膨胀) when it freezes. 6. The minister(部长) refused to ________________(作出评论) on this accident. 7. Great changes have taken place in our school in the past two ________________(十年). 8. Over the past half century, using ________________(化学的)fertilizers has become very common in farming. 9. The ________________(发现) of new land made Columbus(哥伦布) world-famous. 10. (饥饿) is the best sauce. 11. Her shoulders were badly (晒伤). 12. Anot her (超级) skyscraper is being built. 13. Manufacturing (产量) has increased by 8%. 14. Farmers produce millions of tons of g to feed the nation. 15. Would you mind writing a s of the passage? About 200 words are OK. 二、完成句子(每个空1分,共30分) 1. 袁隆平认为自己是个农民,因为他在田里耕作,进行科学研究。 Yuan Longping _________ himself ___ _______, for he works the land to do his research. 2. 多亏了他的研究,联合国在消除世界饥饿的战斗中有了更多的办法。 ______ ____his research, the UN has more tools in the battle to _____ the world _______hunger. 3. 袁博士很满意他的生活。 Dr Yuan is quite _______ ____ his life. 4. 他宁愿把时间花在自己的业余爱好上。 He _________much _________ keep time for his hobbles. 5. 在自己身上花钱或者享受舒适的生活对袁博士来说意义不大。 Spending money on himself or ______ ____ _______ _______ also means very little to him. 6. 事实上,他认为一个人有了太多钱,他的麻烦事只会更多,而不是更少。Indeed, he believes that a person with too much money has more_______ _______ fewer troubles. 7. 食物中的化学成分会在人体中堆积。 These chemicals in the food supply ______ ___ in people's bodies over time. 8. 很多化学成分能导致癌症或其它疾病。 Many of these chemicals can______ ___ cancer or other illnesses. 9. 农民关心的是保持土壤肥沃并且免受病害。

Unit 2 Working the land教案

Unit 2 Working the land教案 Unit 2 Working the land The First Period Reading Teaching goalablleaabout agriculture, countryside and farming. Help Ss learn how to describe Dr Yuan Longping includingalTeaching important and difficula. Held the text and graain ideaxt. b. Grasp the usagwords and exHow to help students leaabout agricultuTeaching methods Talking, qug-and-answering activity and reading. Teaching aids A tader, aand a compuⅠ Greeting and leadingT: Hello, ev: Hello, teaT: In last unit we leagreat women. Today we’ll learn a famous man. Who will it be? Alet’s look at the two pictures on Page 9. What ale doing? Ss: They are plantingT: Can you tellg about rice? S: Rice growu: Bulawe can also findT: Yeah. You are right. In faa cereal grain that has been grown for at least 5,000 years and is eaten by 2.4 billle everyday throughout the world. In Australia, farmers

Workingtheland优秀教案

个人收集整理仅供参考学习 Unit 2 Working the land Period 4 Using language: Extensive reading Teaching aims: I. Topics: Chemical or organic farming II. Useful words and expressions: Chemical, production, bacteria, pest, nutrition, mineral, discovery, focus, soil, reduce, root, skim, underline, summary, comment, build up, lead to, focus on, keep...free from/ of b5E2RGbCAP III. Ability and emotion 1. Develop Ss’ reading skills by extensive reading and enable them to learn how to use different reading skills to read different reading materials.p1EanqFDPw 2. Have Ss tell about modern agriculture and organic farming.DXDiTa9E3d 3. Let Ss have a better understanding of organic farming and pay attention to the quality of food we eat.RTCrpUDGiT Step1 Leading in Ask Ss what they know about organic farming. Collect their ideas on the blackboard. 5PCzVD7HxA Step 2 Skimming Ask Ss to skim the passage and find the main idea of this passage and each paragraph.jLBHrnAILg Paragraph&passage Main idea Paragraph 1 Paragraph 2 Paragraph 3 Paragraph 4 Passage Step 3 Scanning 1 Ask Ss to scan the passage to locate particular information and answer the following questions in Exercise 1 an then fill in the form about the methods and advantages in Exercise 2. xHAQX74J0X Methods of organic farming Advantages of methods 1.Farmers use natural waste from animal. This makes the soil richer in minerals and so more fertile. 1 / 7

高二英语:Working the land教学设计

新修订高中阶段原创精品配套教材 Working the land 教材定制 / 提高课堂效率 /内容可修改 Working the land 教师:风老师 风顺第二中学 编订:FoonShion教育

Working the land unit 2 working the land 核心单词 1. struggle v.挣扎;努力;拼搏;斗争 n. (为争取自由、政治权利等而进行的)斗争,奋斗 常用结构: struggle with与……斗争 struggle for 为争取……而斗争 struggle against与……斗争;为反对……而斗争struggle to do sth. (=make great efforts to do sth.) 努力做某事 struggle to one’s feet 挣扎着站起来 she struggled to keep back the tears. 她努力忍住泪水。it was a hard struggle to get my work done on time. 为使工作按时完成, 我做了一番努力。 易混辨析 struggle/fight

struggle指较长时间的、激烈的斗争,往往指肉体及精神上的战斗。 fight意为“搏斗,打斗,打架”,表示“斗争”时,包含体力和勇猛的因素。 高手过招 (1)单项填空 the working people have never stopped their struggle unfair treatment. (XX?01?山西太原五中检测) a. against b. for c. from d. to (2)完成句子(原创) ①我们应当帮助那些仍在为独立而斗争的人们。 we should help those who are still . ②他们得和各种各样的困难作斗争。 they had to . (1)解析:选a。struggle against意为“同……作斗争”;struggle for意为“为了……而斗争”。 (2)①struggling for independence ②struggle with/against all kinds of difficulties 2. expand v.扩大;扩展;增加;增长;(使)膨胀;阐述;使变大常用结构: expand...into...将……扩展/发展成……

Unit 2 Working the land单词讲解

必修四第二单元Working the land 重点单词讲解 1.struggle vt. & vi.斗争;拼搏;努力 struggle with与……斗争;和……一起战斗struggle...for 为争取……而斗争struggle...against与……斗争;为反对……而斗争struggle+不定式,如: A bird was caught in the net and was struggling to get free. 一只鸟被网罩住了,挣扎着想要逃脱。struggle to one’ s feet挣扎着站起来 a life-and-death struggle生死搏斗 struggle还可以作名词,意思是“斗争;搏斗;努力;挣扎;难事”等。如: With a struggle,he controlled his feelings. 他费力地控制住了自己的感情。 2.expand vt. & vi.使变大;伸展;阐述 expand指向四面八方的扩大扩张 extend 强调向某一方向的延长 spread 指消息,疾病,瘟疫等的传播、蔓延,也指把某物铺开,把胳膊张开 【练习】用expand,extend,spread,stretch的适当形式填空。 1). The man _______ the information around. 2). The empire _______ its country in the 16th century. 3). The road builders worked hard to _______ the high way. Keys: 1). spread 2). expanded 3). extend 3.circulate vt. & vi. 循环;流传 【例句】Blood circulates through the body.血液在体内循环。 【考点】1)形容词:circular圆形的;循环的; 名词:circulation循环;流通;发行量; 2)circulation 作“(报纸、杂志等的)发行量”解时,是可数名词。 4.thanks to thanks to 幸亏;由于;因为 1). Thanks to your help, much trouble was saved. 多亏你的帮助, 减少了许多麻烦。 2). Thanks to the bad weather, the match had been cancelled. 多亏这个倒霉天气, 比赛取消了。thanks to 相当于because of /owing to /due to /thanks to /on account of /as a result of 5.rid rid sb./sth. of... 使某人/某物摆脱…… 1). Many people are working hard to rid the world of famine. 很多人在努力使世界不再有饥荒。 2). The dentist rid him of the pain by taking out his bad tooth. 牙科医生把他的坏牙拔掉,使他免除痛苦。[重点用法] rid 短语: be rid of 摆脱get rid of 摆脱;除掉;去掉 rid a house of mice 清除室内老鼠rid oneself of debt 还清债务 [类似用法动词] inform/ warn/ cure sb. of… 通知/警告/治愈某人…… 6.be satisfied with be satisfied with = be content with 对……表示满足或满意 1). I was not satisfied with the result. 我对那个结果感到不满意。 2). You’ve done well at school. I’m very satisfied with you. 你在学校干得不错,我对你很满意。[重点用法] sth. satisfy sb. 某事使某人满意sb. is satisfied with sth. 对……表示满足或满意 be satisfied to do 对做……感到满意be satisfied that clause 对做……感到满意 a satisfied smile 满意的微笑 a satisfied customer 感到满意的顾客 feel a sense of satisfaction感到满足to sb’ s / sth’ s satisfaction 使某人满意的是 far from satisfactory 远远不能令人满足it is satisfying (to do sth) 做某事是令人满意的 a satisfactory explanation / performance令人满意的解释/演出 get/ob tain satisfaction from one’ s work 从自己的工作中得到满足 7.would rather 1). I’ d rather walk than take a bus. 我愿意走路而不愿意坐公共汽车。 2). “Some more wine?” “Thank you, I’ d rather not. I have to drive home.” [重点用法] would rather do A (than do B) = would (prefer to) do A (rather than do B) 宁愿做甲事(而不做乙事) would rather sb. did sth.宁愿某人做某事(从句用虚拟语气) 8.therefore adv.因此, 所以=for that reason=consequently常用于连接两个并列分句,其前加“and”或分号“;”。 1)He was ill, and therefore could not come. 他病了, 所以未能来。 2)He has broken his leg and therefore he can't walk.他摔坏了腿,因此不能走路了。 3)We do not have enough money. Therefore we cannot afford to buy the new car.我们的钱不够,因此买不成这辆新车。 9.equip vt. & vi.配备;装备 【考点聚焦】1)名词:equipment n.[u] 装备;设备 常用搭配:office equipment 办公设备sports equipment 运动器械 2)与equip相关的词组:equip with 配备…… 3)equip的过去式和过去分词都是equipped;现在分词是equipping。 10.export vt. & vi.输出;出口

必修4unit2workingtheland词汇讲解及练习

必修4 Unit2 Working the land 1 struggle [?str?gl]vi.搏斗;奋斗;努力;争取n.打斗;竞争;奋斗 【例句】They had to struggle against/with all kinds of difficulties. 他们必须和各种各样的困难作斗争。 After 5 years’ of struggle,people in Wenchuan are living a normal life now.经过五年的努力,现在汶川人民的生活步入了正轨。 【搭配】struggle against/with与……斗争struggle for 为争取……而斗争struggle to do 努力去做struggle to one’s feet 挣扎着站起来 a life-and-death struggle生死搏斗 【辨析】battle, war, campaign, struggle, fight 这些名词均有“战斗,战争”之意。 ?battle:侧重指战争中的一次较全面、时间较长的战斗,也指陆军或海军在某一特定地区进行的战斗,或个人之间的争斗。 ?war:是战争的总称,一般指包括多个战役的大规模战争。 ?campaign:通常指在一场大的战争中在某一地区进行的一连串有既定目的的军事行动。 也可作引申用。 ?struggle:指激烈或时间持续长的战斗或奋力斗争。 ?fight:最普通用词,含义广,指战斗、斗争或打斗。 2 hunger [?h??g?(r)] n.饿,饥饿;欲望vt.& vi.(使)饥饿 【例句】His hunger for knowledge drove him to the library. 他对知识的强烈愿望驱使他上图书馆。 These students hunger for new knowledge and ideas. 这些学生渴望学到新知识,获得新思想。 【搭配】have a hunger for 渴望hunger for 渴望得到 【拓展延伸】“渴望得到某物/渴望做某事”的多种表达法归纳如下: hunger for sth. long for sth. hope for sth. wish for sth. be eager for sth. desire sth. hunger to do sth long to do sth hope to do sth wish to do sth be eager to do sth. desire to do sth. 3 expand [?k?sp?nd] vt.使…变大;扩张;详述vi.扩展;发展;张开;展开 【例句】In ten years the city’s population expanded by 12%. 十年之中,该市人口增加了百分之十二。 【搭配】expand...into...将……扩展/发展成……expand on 阐述;详谈 【辨析】expand/extend/spread/stretch expand 意为“展开,扩大”,不仅指尺寸的增加,还可指范围和体积的扩大。 extend 意为“伸出,延伸”,指空间范围的扩大,以及长度,宽度的向外延伸,也可指时间的延长。 spread 意为“传播;蔓延;铺开”。一般指向四面八方扩大传播的范围,如传播(疾病),散布(信息)等。 stretch 意为“伸展(身体等),拉长;连绵”,一般指由曲变直,由短变长的伸展,不是加长。 【拓展延伸】expansion n.展开;膨胀;扩展expansive adj.广阔的;易膨胀的 4rid [r?d] vt.使摆脱,解除,免除 【例句】You are supposed to rid yourself of carelessness,for it often leads to trouble. 你应该

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