新概念英語美文篇一：新概念三 經(jīng)典教材精選的美文十篇

新概念三 經(jīng)典教材精選的美文十篇

新概念三 Lesson 14A noble gangster 貴族歹徒

There was a time when the owners of shops and businesses in Chicago had to pay large sums of money to gangsters in return for 'protection.' If the money was not paid promptly, the gangsters would quickly put a man out of business by destroying his shop. Obtaining 'protection money' is not a modern crime. As long ago as the fourteenth century, an Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood, made the remarkable discovery that people would rather pay large sums of money than have their life work destroyed by gangsters.

Six hundred years ago, Sir Johan Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and settled near Florence. He soon made a name for himself and came to be known to the Italians as Giovanni Acuto. Whenever the Italian city-states were at war with each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes who were willing to pay the high price he demanded. In times of peace, when business was bad, Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after burning down a few farms, would offer to go away if protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood made large sums of money in this way. In spite of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. When he died at the age of eighty, the Florentines gave him a state funeral and had a pictured painted which was dedicated to the memory of 'the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue.'

曾經(jīng)有一個時期,芝加哥的店主和商行的老板們不得不拿出大筆的錢給歹徒以換取"保護"。如果交款不及時,歹徒們就會很快搗毀他的商店,讓他破產(chǎn).榨取"保護金"并不是一種現(xiàn)代的罪惡行徑.早在14世紀,英國人約翰.霍克伍德就有過非凡的發(fā)現(xiàn):"人們情愿拿出大筆的錢,也不愿畢生的心血毀于歹徒之手.

600年前,約翰.霍克伍德爵士帶著一隊士兵來到意大利,在佛羅倫薩附近駐扎下來,很快就出了名.意大利人叫他喬凡尼.阿庫托.每次意大利各城邦之間發(fā)生戰(zhàn)爭,霍克伍德把他的士兵雇傭給愿給他出高價的君主。和平時期,當(dāng)生意蕭條時,霍克伍德便帶領(lǐng)士兵進入某個城邦,縱火燒毀一兩個農(nóng)場,然后提出,如向他們繳納保護金,他們便主動撤離。霍克伍德用這種方法掙了大筆錢.盡管如此,意大利人還是把他視作某種英雄。他80歲那年死去時,佛羅倫薩人為他舉行了國葬,并為他畫像以紀念這位"驍勇無比的戰(zhàn)士、杰出的領(lǐng)袖喬凡尼.阿庫托先生."

Lesson 17 The longest suspension bridge in the world 世界上最長的吊橋

Verrazano, an Italian about whom little is known, sailed into New York Harbour in 1524 and named it Angouleme. He described it as 'a very agreeable situation located within two small hills in the midst of which flowed a great river.' Though Verrazano is by no means considered to be a great explorer, his name will probably remain immortal, for on November 21st, 1964, the longest suspension bridge in the world was named after him.

The Verrazano Bridge, which was designed by Othmar Ammann, joins Brooklyn to Staten Island. It has a span of 4,260 feet. The bridge is so long that the shape of the earth had to be taken into account by its designer. Two great towers support four huge cables. The towers are built on immense underwater platforms made of steel and concrete. The platforms extend to a depth of over 100 feet under the sea. These alone took sixteen months to build. Above the surface of the water, the towers rise to a height of nearly 700 feet. They support the cables from which the bridge has been suspended. Each of the four cables contains 26,108 lengths of wire. It has been estimated that if the bridge were packed with cars, it would still only be carrying a third of its total capacity. However, size and strength are not the only important things about this bridge. Despite its

immensity, it is both simple and elegant, fulfilling its designer's dream to create 'an enormous object drawn as faintly as possible'.

1524年，一位鮮為人知的意大利人維拉薩諾駕船駛進紐約港，并將該港名為安古拉姆。他對該港作了這樣的描述：“地理位置十分適宜，位于兩座小山的中間，一條大河從中間流過”。雖然維拉薩諾絕對算不上一個偉大的探險家，但他的名字將流芳百世，因為1964年11月21日建成的一座世界上最長的吊橋是以他的名字命名。

維拉薩諾大橋由奧斯馬.阿曼設(shè)計，連結(jié)著布魯克林與斯塔頓島，橋長4,260英尺。由于橋身太長，設(shè)計者不得不考慮了地表的形狀。兩座巨塔支撐著4根粗大的鋼纜。塔身建在巨大的水下鋼盤混凝土平臺上。平臺深入海底100英尺。僅這兩座塔就花了16個月才建成。塔身高出水面將近700英尺。高塔支撐著鋼纜，而鋼纜又懸吊著大橋，4根鋼纜中的每根由26，108股鋼繩組成。據(jù)估計，若橋上擺滿了汽車，也只不過是橋的總承載力的1/3。然而，這座橋重要特點不僅是它的規(guī)模與強度。盡管此橋很大，但它的結(jié)構(gòu)簡單，造型優(yōu)美，實現(xiàn)了設(shè)計者企圖創(chuàng)造一個“盡量用細線條勾畫出一個龐然大物”的夢想。

Lesson 21 Daniel Mendoza 丹尼爾.門多薩

Boxing matches were very popular in England two hundred years ago. In those days, boxers fought with bare fists for prize money. Because of this, they were known as 'prize-fighters'. However, boxing was very crude, for there were no rules and a prize-fighter could be seriously injured or even killed during a match.

One of the most colourful figures in boxing history was Daniel Mendoza, who was born in 1764. The use of gloves was not introduced until 1860, when the Marquis of Queensberry drew up the first set of rules. Though he was technically a prize-fighter, Mendoza did much to change crude prize-fighting into a sport, for he brought science to the game. In his day, Mendoza enjoyed tremendous popularity. He was adored by rich and poor alike.

Mendoza rose to fame swiftly after a boxing-match when he was only fourteen years old. This attracted the attention of Richard Humphries who was then the most eminent boxer in England. He offered to train Mendoza and his young pupil was quick to learn. In fact, Mendoza soon became so successful that Humphries turned against him. The two men quarrelled bitterly and it was clear that the argument could only be settled by a fight. A match was held at Stilton, where both men fought for an hour. The public bet a great deal of money on Mendoza, but he was defeated. Mendoza met Humphries in the ring on a later occasion and he lost for a second time. It was not until his third match in 1790 that he finally beat Humphries and became Champion of England. Meanwhile, he founded a highly successful Academy and even Lord Byron became one of his pupils. He earned enormous sums of money and was paid as much as 100 pounds for a single appearance. Despite this, he was so extravagant that he was always in debt. After he was defeated by a boxer called Gentleman Jackson, he was quickly forgotten. He was sent to prison for failing to pay his debts and died in poverty in 1836.

兩百年前，拳擊比賽在英國非常盛行。當(dāng)時，拳擊手們不戴手套，為爭奪獎金而搏斗。因此，他們被稱作“職業(yè)拳擊手”。不過，拳擊是十分野蠻的，因為當(dāng)時沒有任何比賽規(guī)則，職業(yè)拳擊手有可能在比賽中受重傷，甚至喪命。

拳擊史上最引人注目的人物之一是丹尼爾.門多薩，他生于1764年。1860年昆斯伯里侯爵第一次為拳擊比賽制定了規(guī)則，拳擊比賽這才用上了手套。雖然門多薩嚴格來講不過是個職業(yè)拳擊手，但在把這種粗野的拳擊變成一種體育運動方面，他作出了重大貢獻。是他把科學(xué)引進了這項運動。門多薩在他的全盛時期深受大家歡迎，無論是富人還是窮人都對他祟拜備至。

門多薩在14歲時參加一場拳擊賽后一舉成名。這引起當(dāng)時英國拳壇名將理查德.漢弗萊斯的注意。他主動提出教授門多薩，而年少的門多薩一學(xué)就會。事實上，門多薩不久便名聲大振，致使?jié)h弗萊斯與他反目為敵。兩個人爭吵不休，顯而易見，只有較量一番才能解決問題。于是兩人在斯蒂爾頓設(shè)下賽場，廝打了一個小時。公眾把大筆賭注下到了門多薩身上，但他卻輸了。后來，門多薩與漢弗萊斯再次在拳擊場上較量，門多薩又輸了一場。直到1790年他們第3次對壘，門多薩才終于擊敗漢弗萊斯，成了全英拳擊冠軍。同時，他建立了一所拳擊學(xué)校，辦得很成功，連拜倫勛爵也成了他的學(xué)生。門多薩掙來大筆大筆的錢，一次出場費就多可達100英鎊。盡管收入不少，但他揮霍無度，經(jīng)常債臺高筑。他被一個叫杰克遜紳士的拳擊手擊敗后很快被遺忘。他因無力還債而被捕入獄，最后于1836年在貧困中死去。

Lesson 24 A skeleton in the cupboard “家丑”

We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible secret which has been concealed from strangers for years. The English language possesses a vivid saying to describe this sort of situation. The terrible secret is called ‘a(chǎn) skeleton in the cupboard’. At some dramatic moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined. The reader's hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine, a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, poisoned every one of her five husbands.

It is all very well for such things to occur in fiction. To varying degrees, we all have secrets which we do not want even our closest friends to learn, but few of us have skeletons in the cupboard. The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very proud of the fact. George studied medicine in his youth. Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of detective stories. I once spent an uncomfortable weekend which I shall never forget at his house. George showed me to the guest-room which, he said, was rarely used. He told me to unpack my things and then come down to dinner. After I had stacked my shirts and underclothes in two empty drawers, I decided to hang one of the two suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it petrified. A skeleton was dangling before my eyes. The sudden movement of the door made it sway slightly and it gave me the impression that it was about to leap out at me. Dropping my suit, I dashed downstairs to tell George. This was worse than ‘a(chǎn) terrible secret’; this was a real skeleton! But George was unsympathetic. ‘Oh, that,’ he said with a smile as if he were talking about an old friend. ‘That's Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time. ’

在小說中，我們經(jīng)常讀到一個表面上受人尊重的人物或家族，卻有著某種多年不為人所知的駭人聽聞的秘密。英語中有一個生動的說法來形容這種情況。驚人的秘密被稱作“柜中骷髏”。在小說的某個戲劇性時刻，可怕的秘密泄漏出來，接著便是某人的聲譽掃地。當(dāng)讀者讀到小說最后幾頁了解到書中女主人公，那位一向待大家很好的可愛的老婦人年輕時一連毒死了她的5個丈夫時，不禁會毛骨悚然。

這種事發(fā)生在小說中是無可非議的。盡管我們?nèi)巳硕加懈鞣N大小秘密，連最親密的朋友都不愿讓他們知道，但我們當(dāng)中極少有人有柜中骷髏。我所認識的唯一的在柜中藏骷髏的人便是喬治?卡爾頓，他甚至引以為自豪。喬治年輕時學(xué)過醫(yī)，然而，他后來沒當(dāng)上醫(yī)生，卻成了一位成功的偵探小說作家。有一次，我在他家里度周末，過得很不愉快。這事我永遠不會忘記。喬治把我領(lǐng)進客房，說這間房間很少使用。他讓我打開行裝后下樓吃飯。我將襯衫、內(nèi)衣放進兩個空抽屜里，然后我想把隨身帶來的兩套西服中的一套掛到大衣柜里去。我打開柜門，站在柜門前一下子驚呆了。一具骷髏懸掛在眼前，由于柜門突然打開，它也隨之輕微搖

晃起來，讓我覺得它好像馬上要跳出柜門朝我撲過來似的。我扔下西服沖下樓去告訴喬治。這是比“駭人聽聞的秘密”更加驚人的東西，這是一具真正的骷髏�。〉珕讨螀s無動于衷�！班�，是它呀！他笑著說道，儼然在談?wù)撘晃焕吓笥��！澳鞘侨�巴斯蒂安。你忘了我以前是學(xué)醫(yī)的了。”

Lesson 27 Nothing to sell and nothing to buy 沒有東西可賣也沒有東西可買

It has been said that everyone lives by selling something. In the light of this statement, teachers live by selling knowledge, philosophers by selling wisdom and priests by selling spiritual comfort. Though it may be possible to measure the value of material good in terms of money, it is extremely difficult to estimate the true value of the services which people perform for us. There are times when we would willingly give everything we possess to save our lives, yet we might grudge paying a surgeon a high fee for offering us precisely this service. The conditions of society are such that skills have to be paid for in the same way that goods are paid for at a shop. Everyone has something to sell.

Tramps seem to be the only exception to this general rule. Beggars almost sell themselves as human beings to arouse the pity of passers-by. But real tramps are not beggars. They have nothing to sell and require nothing from others. In seeking independence, they do not sacrifice their human dignity. A tramp may ask you for money, but he will never ask you to feel sorry for him. He has deliberately chosen to lead the life he leads and is fully aware of the consequences. He may never be sure where the next meal is coming from, but he is free from the thousands of anxieties which afflict other people. His few material possessions make it possible for him to move from place to place with ease. By having to sleep in the open, he gets far closer to the world of nature than most of us ever do. He may hunt, beg, or steal occasionally to keep himself alive; he may even, in times of real need, do a little work; but he will never sacrifice his freedom. We often speak of tramps with contempt and put them in the same class as beggars, but how many of us can honestly say that we have not felt a little envious of their simple way of life and their freedom from care? 據(jù)說每個人都靠出售某種東西來維持生活。根據(jù)這種說法，教師靠賣知識為生，哲學(xué)家靠賣智慧為生，牧師靠賣精神安慰為生。雖然物質(zhì)產(chǎn)品的價值可以用金錢來衡量，但要估算別人為我們?yōu)樗�提供的服�?wù)的價值卻是極其困難的。有時，我們?yōu)榱送炀壬�命，愿意付出我們所占有的一切。但就在外科大夫給我們提供了這種服務(wù)后，我們卻可能為所支付的昂貴的費用而抱怨。社會上的情況就是如此，技術(shù)是必須付錢去買的，就像在商店里要花錢買商品一樣。人人都有東西可以出售。

在這條普遍的規(guī)律前面，好像只有流浪漢是個例外，乞丐出售的幾乎是他本人，以引起過路人的憐憫。但真正的流浪并不是乞丐。他們既不出售任何東西，也不需要從別人那兒得到任何東西，在追求獨立自由的同時，他們并不犧牲為人的尊嚴。游浪漢可能會向你討錢，但他從來不要你可憐他。他是故意在選擇過那種生活的，并完全清楚以這種方式生活的后果。他可能從不知道下頓飯有無著落，但他不像有人那樣被千萬樁愁事所折磨。他幾乎沒有什么財產(chǎn)，這使他能夠輕松自如地在各地奔波。由于被迫在露天睡覺，他比我們中許多人都離大自然近得多。為了生存，他可能會去打獵、乞討，偶爾偷上一兩回；確實需要的時候，他甚至可能干一點兒活，但他決不會犧牲自由。說起流浪漢，我們常常帶有輕蔑并把他們與乞丐歸為一類。但是，我們中有多少人能(轉(zhuǎn)載于:www.newchangjing.com 蒲 公 英 文 摘:新概念英語美文)夠坦率地說我們對流浪漢的簡樸生活與無憂無慮的境況不感到有些羨慕呢？

Lesson 33 A day to remember 難忘的一天

We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong. A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control. What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment. It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions. Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time. The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to an unforeseen series of catastrophes. While you are on the phone, the baby pulls the table-cloth off the table, smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process. You hang up hurriedly and attend to baby, crockery, etc. Meanwhile, the meal gets burnt. As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.

Things can go wrong on a big scale, as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney. During the rush hour one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue. The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner. She suddenly got into a panic and stopped her car. This made the driver following her brake hard. His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake. As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road. Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry–driver who was drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden. The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road. This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile, the traffic piled up behind. It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again. In the meantime, the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles. Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they greedily devoured what was left of the cake. It was just one of those days!

我們大家都有過事事不順心的日子。一天開始時，可能還不錯，但突然間似乎一切都失去了控制。情況經(jīng)常是這樣的，許許多多的事情都偏偏趕在同一時刻出問題，好像是一件無關(guān)緊要的小事引起了一連串的連鎖反應(yīng)。假設(shè)你在做飯，同時又在照看孩子。這時電話鈴響了，它預(yù)示著一連串意想不到的災(zāi)難的來臨。就在你接電話時，孩子把桌布從桌子上扯了下來，將家中最好的陶瓷餐具半數(shù)摔碎，同時也弄傷了他自己。你急急忙忙掛上電話，趕去照看孩子和餐具。這時，飯又燒糊了。好像這一切還不足以使你急得掉淚，你的丈夫接著回來了，事先沒打招呼就帶來3個客人吃飯。

就像許多人最近在悉尼郊區(qū)帕拉馬塔所發(fā)現(xiàn)的那樣，有時亂子會鬧得很大。一天傍晚交通最擁擠時，一輛汽車撞上前面一輛汽車，兩個司機爭吵起來。緊跟其后的一輛車上的司機碰巧是個初學(xué)者，她一驚之下突然把車停了下來。她這一停使得跟在后頭的司機也來了個急剎車。司機的妻子正坐在他身邊，手里托著塊大蛋糕。她往前一沖，蛋糕從擋風(fēng)玻璃飛了出去掉在馬路上。此時，一輛卡車正好從后邊開到那輛汽車邊上，司機看見一塊蛋糕從天而降，緊急剎車。卡車上裝著空啤酒瓶，成百只瓶子順勢從卡車后面滑出車外落在馬路上。這又引起了一場唇槍舌劍的爭吵。與此同時，后面的車輛排成了長龍，警察花了將近一個小時才使車輛又開起來。在這段時間里，卡車司機不得不清掃那幾百只破瓶子。只有兩只野狗從這一片混亂中得到了好處，它們貪婪地吃掉了剩下的蛋糕。這就是事事不順心的那么一天！ Lesson 34 A happy discovery 幸運的發(fā)現(xiàn)

Antique shops exert a peculiar fascination on a great many people. The more expensive kind of antique shop where rare objects are beautifully displayed in glass cases to keep them free from dust is usually a forbidding place. But no one has to muster up courage to enter a less pretentious antique shop. There is always hope that in its labyrinth of musty, dark, disordered rooms a real rarity will be found amongst the piles of assorted junk that litter the floors.

No one discovers a rarity by chance. A truly dedicated bargain hunter must have patience, and

新概念英語美文篇二：新概念優(yōu)美英文背誦短文50篇

Unit1:The Language of Music

A painter hangs his or her finished pictures 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 instruments 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 tuner’s responsibility to tune the instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties; the hammers that hit the string 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 sound 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.

Unit2:Schooling and Education

It is commonly believed in 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 one’s 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 working of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that there 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.

Unit3:The Defini tion of Price

Prices 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 the ―system‖ 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 values 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, return privileges, and other factors. In other words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the factors that comprise the total ―package‖ being exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price.

Unit4:Electricity

The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric lights, 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 million 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 cell 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 cell are linked together, the effects can be astonishing.

The electric eel is an amazing storage battery. It can seed a jolt of as much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it live. ( An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.) As many as four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel’s body are specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it can deliver corresponds roughly to length of its body.

Unit5:The Beginning of Drama

There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The on most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world-even the seasonal changes-as unpredictable, and they sought through various means to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.

Those who believe that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used, Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium." In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun-as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.

Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this vies tales (about the hunt, war, or other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds.

新概念英語美文篇三：新概念英語文章及知識點

A Private Conversation

Last week I went to the theatre. I had a very good seat. The play was very interesting. I did not enjoy it. A young man and a

young woman were sitting behind me. They were talking loudly. I got very angry. I could not hear the actors. I turned round. I

looked at the young man and the young woman angrily. They did not pay any attention. In the end, I could not bear it. I turned round again. ‘I can’t hear a word!’ I said angrily.

‘It’s none of your business,’ the young man said rudely. ‘This is a private conversation!’

學(xué)習(xí)筆記

last week

go to the theatre

have a good seat

(have a good time)

enjoy (doing) sth.

sit behind (in front of)sb.

talk loudly

turn round(around) look at pay attention to in the end can’t hear a word It’s none of your business a private conversation

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