发布时间 : 星期四 文章背诵80篇打印版（含翻译）更新完毕开始阅读7fa13a63561252d380eb6e57
背诵80篇
scavenging by other animals, a lack of swift currents and waves to jumble and carry away small bones, and fairly rapid burial. Given these factors, some areas have become a treasury of well-preserved ichthyosaur fossils.
The deposits at Holzmaden, Germany, present an interesting case for analysis. The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marine shales deposited about 190 million years ago. Over the years,
thousands of specimens of marine reptiles, fish and invertebrates have been recovered from these rocks. The quality of preservation is outstanding, but what is even more impressive is the number of ichthyosaur fossils containing preserved embryos.
Ichthyosaurs with embryos have been reported from 6 different levels of the shale in a small area around Holzmaden, suggesting that a specific site was used by large numbers of ichthyosaurs repeatedly over time. The embryos are quite advanced in their physical development; their paddles, for example, are already well formed. One specimen is even preserved in the birth canal. In addition, the shale contains the remains of many newborns that are between 20 and 30 inches long.
Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when they are so rare elsewhere? The quality of preservation is almost unmatched and quarry operations have been carried out carefully with an awareness of the value of the fossils. But these factors do not account for the interesting question of how there came to be such a concentration of pregnant ichthyosaurs in a particular place very close to their time of giving birth.
罕见的化石记录 胚胎与幼体被保存下来在化石记录中是少见的事情。微小纤细的骨骼 通常在石化前就被食腐肉的动物拆散了，或者被风化作用破坏掉了。
鱼龙比起陆地的动物 有更大的几率被保存下来，因为它们作为海洋动物常生活在腐蚀性较小的环境中。 但是它
们的石化需要一系列因素：软组织的腐烂速度缓慢，很少被其他动物残食，缺少混杂、冲走 小骨头的快速水流和波浪，以及相当快地被掩埋。
当这些因素存在时，某些地区就会变成 一个充满保存完好的鱼龙化石的宝库。在德国获尔兹梅登，那儿的沉积物给人们提出了一个 有趣的分析案例。
人们在黑色的、含沥青的海洋页岩中发现了约 19，000 年前沉积下来的 鱼龙化石。
几年时间内，在这些岩石中取得了数以千计的海洋爬行动物、鱼类以及无脊椎 动物的标本。
它们的保存质量非常的好，但更令人称奇的是保存下来的育有胚胎的鱼龙化 石数目。 在获尔兹梅登附近一个小地区的六个不同的页岩层中分别发现了育有胚胎的鱼龙 化石。 这表明大量的鱼龙经年累月重复使用一个特定的地点。 那些胚胎已经发育得相当完 整了。 比如，它们的蹼桨已经完全形成了。
有一个标本甚至被保存在产道中。 而且，那 块页岩包含着很多在 20 到 30 英寸之间的新生幼体的化石。为什么在其他地方那么稀少的怀
孕雌兽和幼体在获尔兹梅登却那么多呢? 因为其保存质量几乎举世无双，采集工作的进行一 直是一丝不苟的。
大家都认识到这些化石的价值极其珍贵，但这些因素并不能解释这个有 趣的问题： 为什么在一个特定的地点会如此集中地出现即将临产的怀孕鱼龙群呢? >15 The Nobel Academy
For the last 82 years, Sweden's Nobel Academy has decided who will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, thereby determining who will be elevated from the great and the near great to the immortal. But today the Academy is
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coming under heavy criticism both from the without and from within. Critics contend that the selection of the winners often has less to do with true writing ability than with the peculiar internal politics of the Academy and of Sweden itself. According to Ingmar Bjorksten, the cultural editor for one of the country's two major newspapers, the prize continues to represent \ Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism in its selection by asserting that its physical distance from the great literary
capitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from outside influences. This may well be true, but critics respond that this very distance may also be responsible for the Academy's inability to perceive accurately authentic trends in the literary world.
Regardless of concerns over the selection process, however, it seems that the prize will
continue to survive both as an indicator of the literature that we most highly praise, and as an elusive goal that writers seek. If for no other reason, the prize will continue to be desirable for the financial rewards that accompany it; not only is the cash prize itself considerable, but it also dramatically increases sales of an author's books. 诺贝尔委员会
过去的 82 年里，瑞典的诺贝尔委员会决定了谁将获得诺贝尔文学奖，因此也就决定了 谁将从伟大或近乎伟大荣升为不朽。
但在今天，该委员会却遭到了评选委员会内外的猛烈 批评。 批评者们争论说：\评选获奖者时，起作用更大的不是真实的写作能力，而是该委员
会以及瑞典特有的内部政治。 按照瑞典两家主要报纸之一的文化版编辑 Ingmar Bjorksten 的说法，该文学奖仍然是\人们所说的一种非常瑞典式的做为：反映瑞典口味\。对于其评选
过程中目光短浅的指责，该委员会辩护说，该委员会与世界几大文学之都相距遥远，实际上 使该委员会免受外来的干扰。
这也许是对的，但批评者们反驳说，也正因为相距如此遥远， 该委员会才不能准确地把握文学界的真正趋势。尽管对评选程序存在着关注，该文学奖将继
续作为世人最为推崇的文学的标志而存在，并将继续是作家们难以达到却又会不断追逐的目 标。 如果不考虑其他因素，而仅仅考虑与之俱来的经济利益，该奖也将继续为人所渴求：
这不仅因为该奖本身就是一笔可观的现金收入，而且该奖还将极大地增加一个作家的著作的 销量。 >16 The War between Britain and France
In the late eighteenth century, battles raged in almost every corner of Europe, as well as in the Middle East, South Africa, the West Indies, and Latin America. In reality, however, there was only one major war during this time, the war between Britain and France. All other battles were ancillary to this larger conflict, and were often at least partially related to its antagonists' goals and strategies. France sought total
domination of Europe. This goal was obstructed by British independence and Britain's efforts throughout the continent to thwart Napoleon; through treaties, Britain built coalitions (not dissimilar in concept to today's NATO) guaranteeing British participation in all major European conflicts. These two antagonists were poorly matched, insofar as they had very unequal strengths: France was predominant on land, Britain at sea. The French knew that, short of defeating the British navy, their only hope of victory was to close all the ports of Europe to British ships.
Accordingly, France set out to overcome Britain by extending its military
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domination from Moscow to Lisbon, from Jutland to Calabria. All of this entailed tremendous risk, because France did not have the military resources to control this much territory and still protect itself and maintain order at home.
French strategists calculated that a navy of 150 ships would provide the
force necessary to defeat the British navy. Such a force would give France a three-to-two advantage over Britain. This advantage was deemed necessary because of Britain's superior sea skills and technology, and also because Britain would be fighting a defensive war, allowing it to win with fewer
forces. Napoleon never lost sight of his goal, because Britain represented the last substantial
impediment to his control of Europe. As his force neared that goal,
Napoleon grew increasingly impatient and began planning an immediate attack. 英法战争
在 18 世纪后期，战争爆发于欧洲大陆的几乎每一个角落，在中东、南非、西印度群岛、 拉丁美洲亦都是如此。
然而实际上，在这一时期只有一场主要的战争，那就是英法之间的 战争。 所有其他战争都服从于这一更大的争端，至少是与这两个对手的目标和战略有某些 关联。
法国力图统治整个欧洲，而英国的自主及其力图在整个欧洲大陆挫败拿破仑的种种
努力都是法国实现这一目标的障碍。英国通过条约建立了联盟(和今天北约的概念没有什么 不同)以保证英国插手所有欧洲的主要争端。
这两个对头并不是一对好对手，因为他们的力 量极不均衡：法兰西在陆地上称王，英格兰则在海上称霸。 法国人明白，如果不能击败英
国海军，他们胜利的唯一希望就是让欧洲的所有港口都对英国舰船关闭。 于是，法国将其 军事占领从莫斯科延伸到里斯本，从尤特兰延伸到卡拉布里亚，企图以此来制服英国。 所
有这些行动包含着巨大的风险，因为法国并不具备足够的军事资源，来控制这么多地盘，同 时又能保护自己，维持国内的秩序。法国战略家们的算盘是，其海军若拥有
150 艘军舰，则 将足以击跨英国海军。 这样的武力将使法国对英国具有 3 比 2 的优势。 这种优势被认为是
必不可少的，因为英国人具有超群的海上技能和技术，并且打的是一场防御战争，使它能以 少胜多。 拿破仑从未忘却他的目标，因为英国是他统治全欧的最后一个重大的障碍。 随着 他的力量越来越靠近这个目标，拿破仑变得越来越不耐烦起来，开始策划立即攻击。 >17 Evolution of Sleep
Sleep is very ancient. In the electroencephalographic sense we share it with all the primates and almost all the other mammals and birds: it may extend back as far as the reptiles.
There is some evidence that the two types of sleep, dreaming and dreamless, depend on the life-style of the animal, and that predators are
statistically much more likely to dream than prey, which are in turn much more likely to experience dreamless sleep. In dream sleep, the animal is powerfully immobilized and remarkably unresponsive to external stimuli. Dreamless sleep is much shallower, and we have all witnessed cats or dogs cocking their ears to a sound when apparently fast asleep. The fact that deep dream sleep is rare among prey today seems clearly to be a product of natural selection, and it makes sense that today, when sleep is highly evolved, the stupid animals are less frequently immobilized by deep sleep than the smart ones. But why should they sleep deeply at all?
Why should a state of such deep immobilization ever have evolved? Perhaps
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one useful hint about the original function of sleep is to be found in the fact that dolphins and whales and aquatic mammals in general seem to sleep very little. There is, by and large, no place to hide in the ocean. Could it be that, rather than increasing an animal's
vulnerability, the function of sleep is to decrease it? Wilse Webb of the
University of Florida and Ray Meddis of London University have suggested this to be the case. It is conceivable that animals who are too stupid to be quiet on their own initiative are, during periods of high risk, immobilized by the implacable arm of sleep. The point seems particularly clear for the young of predatory animals. This is an interesting notion and probably at least partly true. 睡眠的进化
睡眠是古老的。 从脑电图上看，我们人类和所有灵长目动物以及几乎所有的哺乳动物 和鸟类都一样需要睡眠；甚至爬行类动物也有睡眠。 有证据显示，有梦睡眠和无梦睡眠这
两种类型的睡眠取决于该动物的生活方式。 从统计上看，食肉动物比被捕食动物有更多的 有梦睡眠，而被捕食动物更多地无梦睡眠。 动物在有梦睡眠时，被有效地解除动作能力， 并且对外界刺激缺乏反应。 无梦睡眠则要浅得多。 我们都看到过猫和狗在显然的酣睡中，
有一点响动耳朵就会竖起来。 被捕食动物很少有深度的有梦睡眠，这看来显然是自然选择 的结果。 而且这一点是有道理的：当睡眠高度进化以后，愚笨的动物比聪明的动物更少在 深度睡眠状态下丧失动作能力。
但是动物为什么要进入深度睡眠呢?为什么这样的无动作状 态也会进化出来呢? 海豚、鲸鱼以及水生哺乳动物睡眠都极少，这一事实可以给睡眠的根本
功能提供有用的线索。 海洋中是没有藏身之处的。 会不会是这样，睡眠不但不增加动物受 伤害的可能性，反而是减少了这种可能性呢?佛罗里达大学的 Wilse
Webb 和伦敦大学的 Ray Meddis 认为情况就是如此。 可以想像得出，在危险的时刻，那些由于太愚笨而不能自动保
持安静的动物，会不由自主地变得动弹不得。 这一点在食肉动物的幼兽身上表现得特别明 显。 这是一个很有意思的看法，它至少部分是正确的。 >18 Modern American Universities
Before the 1850's, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.
Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university. In Germany a different kind of university had developed. The German university was concerned primarily with
creating and spreading knowledge, not morals. Between midcentury and the end of the 1800's, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study. Some of them returned to become presidents of venerable colleges -- Harvard, Yale, Columbia -- and transform them into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for
disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty
composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning by rote were
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