1、Unit three,Introduction about the author,Al gore was born in 1948 in Washington D.C., U.S. he has been a senator (1984-1992) representing the state of Tennessee, and U.S. vice-president (1992-2000) under president Bill Clinton. He ran for the presidency against George W. Bush Jr. but the latter won
2、the closely tied election and has become the 43 rd American president. The text is taken from al gores book earth in the balance.,Al Gores profound analysis of where humanity has gone wrong ranges across history, politics, science, economics, psychology, philosophy, and religion. Gore demonstrates t
3、hat the quality of our air and water is urgently at risk. He clearly illustrates how problems that once were regional have now become global. Gore argues for a worldwide mobilization to save us from disaster.,The Aral sea Located in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan Historically a saline lake In 1960 the wo
4、rlds fourth largest lake, the size of the entirety of Southern California. In the center of a large, flat desert basin A prime example of a dynamic environment Americas great lakes The group of five freshwater lakes, central north America, between the united states and Canada. Largest body of fresh
5、water in the world From west to east, they are lake Superior, lake Michigan, lake Huron, lake Erie, and lake Ontarioi.e. HOMES,Questions for understanding: 1. why did the writer go to the aral sea? What did he see there? 2. what were scientists doing in the antarctic region? 3. Why would the thinnin
6、g of the polar ice cap be disastrous to the world? 4. How will the destruction of the amazon rain forest affect the earths ecological balance? 5. How are the “ghosts in the sky” formed? 6. Why does the writer say “our response to these signals is puzzling”?,7. Why is global warming considered a stra
7、tegic threat? 8. What are the two factors that define the physical reality of our relationship to the earth? 9. what dramatic changes have occurred in these two key factors? 10. What soutions does the writer put forward to our ecological problems?,Bleak: A bleak prospect/ future/outlook Life here ha
8、s always been bleak and difficult. Bleak winds of the north Atlantic Paraphrase: the prospects of a good catch looked bleak. It was not at all possible to catch a large amount of fish. Understatement: A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating
9、 its opposite, as in “this is no small problem”. Eg: even though I was the president of the class, I did not do much besides organizing all the events during the school year, and helping out fellow classmates. I was kind of sick the other day, it really wasnt that bad besides that I broke my arm and
10、 my leg.,My room isnt very messy besides that there are about twenty books scattered around the room with ten or so pants or shirts hanging around my bed area. Overstatement: Eg: I read all my text books today, my eyes are totally falling off! Lap: to wash or flow Cats and dogs lap water. Water lapp
11、ed the sides of the boat. Before the end of the race Bob had lapped Jimmy. She lapped my finger with gauze. He used to lap the page where he stopped reading. She was sitting with her hands on her lap. Paraphrase: the water that in the desert. The water to flow into the sea has been turned away to ir
12、rigate the land created in the desert to grow cotton. This scheme is ill conceived.,Para 2: Paraphrase: s1 I travelled around the world because I wanted to see, check and study cases of such destruction in order to find out the basic causes behind the enviromental crisis. the very bottom of the eart
13、h: the southern end of the earth Trans-Antarctic mountains divided antarctica into the east antarctic and west antarctic subcontinents hole: ozone depletion dig through time: drill sample from glacier Cracked(past particle), peeling(present particle), Paraphrase:He moved his finger in time to the ic
14、e of two decades ago:,Following the layers of ice in the core sample, his finger came to the place where the layer of ice was formed 20 year ago. two continents: north america and antarctica Emission: the amount of pollution discharged least accessible:most difficult to get to Para 3 Paraphrase: ind
15、ustry means coal, and later oil Industry needs to use coal and oil as fuel to generate power. Paraphrase: bring rising levels the earth. Make the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere grow, because heat can not easily get through carbon dioxide and go into the high altitude so carbon dioxide pl
16、ays the role of a cover, keeping the heat near the earth.,Para 4: Rendezvous point: a place where a submarine was to pick them up Hover: to wait close by negotiate an agreement: achieve an agreement by negotiation To secure the release : To ensure the making public of data which was originally class
17、ified as top secret. Eerily: mysterial (usu. Frighten, disturbed) eg: the eerily sound of owl. define: show the edge or shape of sth. Eg: sharply defined footprints on the fresh snow.,Sheet: layer I was standing in an eerily.collide: I was standing in the vast scene of snow which was fearfully beaut
18、iful, windswept and shining white, with the strech of ice field characterized by small ridges because of the force of the collision of the separate layers of earth.,Para 5: Scenario: possible situationspeculative: imaginary controversial claim: statement not completely accepted Para 6: Acre by acre:
19、 Bits by bits in the rain forest are burned and the land is cleared and turned into pasture where cattle can be raised quickly and slaughtered and the beef can be used in hamburgers. the dry season: eg: the wet/football/breeding/planting/holiday/harvest/cold/tourist/game season; a season of film, in
20、 season, out of season,Worth: equal in area or size Which means we Since miles of forests are being destroyed and the habitat for these rare birds no longer exists, thousands of birds which we have not even had a chance to see will become extinct. Para 7: The sky itself offers another ghostly image:
21、 The sky alone presents another example of ill scareful showing. There is ecological imbalance and this kind of imbalance is developing. Blot out: to hide or obscure,noctilucent cloud: night shining/lumonious cloud visible at night. Noctinight; lucent-shining Landfill: dispoal, rubbish by burying it
22、 in shallow layer Biomass: amount of living organism in a particular area strike long: remain strong, still shine, has power,Para 8: Simple wonder or the mix Should it only be a feeling of surprise and admiration or a combination of different feelings we experience in the zoo? That is on the one han
23、d we feel excited about seeing those images, but on the other hand we feel sorry for them because they are the symbols of the nature imbalance. Awe: respect and admiration. Here it means amuzed and frightened at Just as men tear: Just as men are killing such large number of elephants for their tasks
24、 that the species will soon extinguish/ disappear, we are using and destroying resources in such a big amount that we are disturbing the balance between daylight and darkness.,Volume: quantity eg: passenger volume, a volume of mail Process: rip matter from its place add to: enhance strengthen for wh
25、at they are: their real nature Manifestation: obvious or clear example/ sign Or have our eyes what they are: Our eyes should not have adjusted/accustomed so completely to the bright electric lights that we fail to understand the threatening implication of these clouds. A physical manifestation We fa
26、il to understand that it is a glaring sigh of the violent clash between human activity and nature.,Para 9: Paralysis: loss of activity distraction: divertion, substitute And why do other And why do other images, though sometimes no less striking, only cause a kind of loss and inactivity and we conce
27、ntrate our attention not on the ways to deal with them but instead, on some other substitutes which are easy to get and less painful. Para 11: Theater: scene of operation Para 13: global process by which the earth regulates: usual way of handling and controlling ultraviolet: eg: ultrared, ultrashort
28、, ultrasonic,Para 15: But it is precisely: What we should get rid of is exactly that kind of view which has been taken for granted. Only when we have dropped such a view can we think in a long term, overall way about our relationship to the enviroment. Para 16: Our effect on the earth : Measure our
29、effect in the same way as we measure the effect of natural force. We seem oblivious of We seem to pay no attention to the earths natural systems which are very delicate and can easily be disturbed.,Para 17: Define the physical reality of our relationship to the earth: Determine the actual state of o
30、ur relationship with the earth With the addition of one chins worth of people every ten year: every ten years the newly-added population will equal the population of china Which has allowed an alomost unimaginable around us: which has increased our powers to influence the world around us to such a d
31、egree that can hardly ne conceived Physical matter: material substance Para 18: When viewed in a historical context: when we look at the matter from a historical point of view,Para 19: In the course of one human lifetime: during the life span of an individual my ilfetime it is already more than half
32、way there: the world population is already more than half of that figure. Para 20: accelerated exponentially: developed at a speed that doubled and tripled the original speed While no single discovery warfare: although no individual discovery has changed human relationship to the earth so much that
33、it is comparable to the nuclear weapon which have brought tremendous change to the relationship between man and warfare. Taken together Substenance: out all the discoveries together, they have completely changed our ability to utilize the earth productivity for survival. making the consequence of: t
34、his increased ability has made the results of unlimited use of global resources altogethe as terrible as the results of full-scale nuclear war.,Para 21: Have much more in common than their ability to shock and awaken us: are so much the same in nature that they surprise us no longer Para 22: The pro
35、blem is not our: what is involved is a matter of human relations with nature, rather than how mankind will effect nature. Assessment: to weigh and determine If we want to solve the problem, we have to carefully weigh and determine how important that relationship is and how important the complicated
36、interconnection among factors inside human society and between these factors and the main natural parts of global eologial system.,Para 23: Precedent: example in the past which posed similar to For this kind of challenge to our thinking: demand on us for a change in our way of looking at things Forc
37、ed a slow and painful recognition: the situation compelled us to accept as a fact gradually and with difficulty Institution of warfare: practice of armed conflict All-out: using all possible strength and effort That sobering realization led to a careful reassessment: once you know how serious and te
38、rrible a nuclear weapon will be, you become more clear-headed, balanced in your reasons and judgement. The veil of illusion that : the wrong thinking people entertain which have made them fail to see the change in the nature of armed conflict.,Para 24: inspire fear in the other: in this the other si
39、de would be deterred not to launch a first strike in nuclear weapon But each: each advance in weaponary led to a new round of arma ace, a race of a much more destructive level. No doubt that the advance in technology has made the problem more difficult to solve but technology is not the real cause.
40、The real casue lies in the kind of relationship between the Soviet Union and the US and the theoretical basis for this kind of relationship is their outdated cncept of war.,Para 25: Ultimate weapon: a weapon beyond which it is impossible to develop Disarm unilaterally: get rid of weapons of war by o
41、nly one side Rogue: dishonest, mischievous, not following the usual or accepted standards, in an uncontrollable or troublesome way Rogue states: statas that do not observe or follow the established intenational norms and practice and can be cinsidered dishonest.,Structure analysis: 1, para1: effects
42、 of environmental crisis (the aral) 2. para 2-20: causes of environmental crisisa. the destruction around the world (Antarctic, the arctic, the equator, around us, )b. classification of the images of destruction (local, regional, strategic)c. the dominant cause of the change (human civilization) 3.
43、para 21-26: solutiona. recognizing the startling images of destructionb. understanding the two aspectsc. changing the view of the relationship educate people,Language appreciation: The author developed this exposition by the course and effect method, and chose typical examples to support his ideas.
44、Figures of speech: Understatement, alliteration, metaphor, rhetorical question, metonymy His formal style, serious tone as well as military metaphors indicates that environmental protection is a kind of war. Although its about a scientific research, but the writers uses few technical terms so that o
45、rdinary people can understand it easily.,1）result (C)，=effect or outcome（significant or pleasing）,marks or score or answer to a competition, sports event or examination etc. 泛指结果本身，使用频率高，有较强的“最后结果”的意味。 例1：The result of the game was five-nil. 2）consequence (U）influence，(always in derogatory sense）);
46、U) importance(重要性)；in consent (of sth）= as a result of 强调因果关系和前因后果的逻辑性 例2：As a consequence of being in hospital, Shelly decided that she wanted to become a nurse. 3）outcome:1强调一件事情的结局:2竞赛或悬而未决的事最后“见输赢，见分晓”例3：The outcome of the election was in doubt then。比较起来result和outcome跟接近一些，很多情况下result和outcome可以通
47、用，比如例一和例二。另外惯用法也不可忽视，例如可以说as a result, .（结果），但不能用as a outcome, .,cause is an agent or condition that permits the occurrence of an effect or necessarily or ineluctably leads to a result: Cause 是允许一种效果的发生或必然、必要导致结果发生的动因或条件： “He is not only dull in himself, but the cause of dullness in others” (Samuel
48、Foote). “他不仅仅是自己愚蠢，而且是引起他人愚蠢的原因” （塞缪尔福特）。 Reason refers to what explains the occurrence or nature of an effect: Reason 是指解释某种效果的发生或性质的措辞： There was no obvious reason for the accident.,relation用法较广；其次区别在于relation侧重形式上的关连，而relationship却侧重密切的交往。The relationship between me and my father. 我和父亲的父子关系上的感情层面
49、的关系，可以用好或者不好来形容 The relation between me and my father. 表示一种客观存在的联系，就是父子联系。就没有好和不好的概念，因为它是客观存在的关系。,complex指组成某种机器的零件、构成某件事的因素或构成数学题的元素不仅很多，而且相互的关系或相互的作用也令人眼花缭乱，只有学识深的人或具有专门知识的人才能处理。 the complex mechanism of a watch the complex modern world Justice is part of the complex machinery of the law. He mentally visualizes a complex form all round itself. complicated 具有complex的一切意义，但更强调复杂得难以解释或理解。一道算式题可能非常 complex,但未必确实complicated；而一道 complicated 算式一般总是 complex的。,
