托福写作提高必背10个短文1. 000139 文科段子:艺术类音乐It may seem strange that we're discussing music from a Broadway production in this class, "The Lion King" espe cially, since it's based on a popular Hollywood movie. I m ean music preformed for Broadway theater in the heart of New York city surely would seem to be in the western tra dition of popular music and not have much in common wi th the music we have been studying in this course, such a s gamelan music of Indonesia, or Zulu chants of South Af rica, music that developed outside the western tradition of Europe and America. But in fact, musicians have a long-st anding tradition of borrowing front one another's cultures. And this productions director intentionally included both we stern and non-western music. That way, some of the rhyth ms, instrument, and harmonies typical of non-western music contrast with and complement popular music more familia r to audiences in North America and Europe, music like ro ck, jazz or Broadway style show tunes. So I want to spen d the rest of this class and most of the next one on the music from the show "The Lion King" as a way of summ arizing some of the technical distinctions between typical western music and the non-western music that we've been st udying. Now the African influence on the music is clear. The story takes place in Africa. So the director got a Sout h African composer to write songs with a distinctly Africa n sound. And the songs even include words from African l anguages. But we'll get back to the African influence later. First let's turn to the music that was written for the shad ow puppet scenes in "The Lion King", music based on the Indonesian music used in the shadow puppet theater of th at region.2. 000143 理科段子:天文学In ancient times, many people believed the earth was a flat disc. Well over 2,000 years ago; the ancient Greek philosophers were able to put forward two good arguments proving that it was not. Direct observations of heavenly b odies were the basis of both these arguments. First, the Gr eeks knew that during eclipses of the moon the earth was between the sun and the moon, and they saw that during t hese eclipses, the earth's shadow on the moon was always round, they realized that this could be true only if the eart h was spherical, It the earth was a flat disc, then its shadow during eclipses would not be a prefect circle; it would be stretched out into a long ellipse. The second argument was based on what the Greeks saw during their travels. Th ey noticed that the North Star, or Polaris, appeared lower i n the sky when they traveled south, in the more northerly regions, the North Star appeared to them to be much highe r in the sky. By the way, it was also from this difference in the apparent position of the North Star that the Greeks first calculated the approximate distance around the circumf erence of the earth, a figure recorded in ancient documents says 400.000 stadium, that's the plural of the world stadiu m. Today, it's not known exactly what length one stadium represents, but let's say it was about 200 meters, the length of many athletic stadiums. This would make the Greeks e stimate about twice the figure accepted today, a very good estimate for those writing so long before even the first tel escope was invented.3. 991044 文科段子:文学名著Continuing our survey of the 19th century, let's take a look now at Harriet Beecher Stowe. Now Stowe is best k nown for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that detailsthe harshness of plantation life in the south. The book wa s extremely popular in the United States as well as in othe r countries. Ironically though, for all the attention given to Uncle Tom's Cabin, it's far from Stowe's best work. She did write one other novel about life in the south, but muc h of her best work has nothing with the south at all. In fa ct, Stowe's best writing is about village life in the New E ngland's states in the 19th century. In recording to the cust oms of the villages she wrote about, Stowe claimed that h er purpose was to reflect the images as realistically as pos sible. She usually succeeded, for her settings were often de scribed accurately and in detail. In this sense, she was an important forerunner to the realistic movement that became popular later in the 19th century. She was one of the firs t writers to use local dialect for her characters when they spoke. And she did this for 30 years before Mark Twain p opularized the use of local dialect. It makes sense that Sto we would write about New England life, since she was bo rn in Connecticut. As a young woman there, she worked a s a teacher. The teaching job helped lead to her first publi shed work, a geography book for children. Later when she was married, her writing helped her support her family financially. Throughout her life, she wrote poems, travel boo ks, biographical sketches and children's books, as well as n ovels for adults4. 991040 生活段子:噪音影响I'm grad to see so many of you here. We've become really alarmed over the health center by the number of stu dents we are seeing, who are experiencing hearing loss. Fir st, I want to go over some basic about hearing. Then we can take a look at our school environment and see if we c an figure out some ways to protect hearing. The leading c ause of preventable hearing loss is excessive noise. Too m uch moderate noise for a long time or some types of inten se noise for even a short time can damage hearing. Loudn ess is measured in units called decibels. One decibel is the lowest sound that the average person can here. Sounds up to 80 decibels generally aren't harmful. That's noise like t raffic on a busy street. But anything louder than 80 decibe ls, especially with continuous exposure, may eventually hurt your hearing. Once you are up to around 140 decibels, th at's like a jet plane taking off, then you might even feel p ain in your ears. And pains are sure sign that your hearing's at risk. Even one exposure to a really loud noise at clos e range can cause hearing loss. So what you need to do is limit your exposure to harmful levels. If you pass along t his handout, we can take a look at the decibel level of so me common campus sounds. Notice how loud those horns are that people take to football games. They are really dan gerous if blown right behind you. Now, let's try to generate a list of damaging noises.5. 990839 文科段子:电影艺术To get us started this semester I am going to spend t he first two classes giving you background lectures about s ome basic cinematic concepts. Once you are a little more f amiliar with basic film terminology, we will be ready to lo ok at the history of movies in the United States. You'll be expected to attend showing of films on Tuesday evenings at 7 o'clock in Jennings Auditorium. That's our lab. Then during our Wednesday seminar, we'll discuss in depth the movie we saw the night before. We are not covering sile nt films in this course. We will begin with the first talkin g motion picture, The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. The n ext week, we'll be looking at The Gold Diggers of 1933, a piece that is very representative of the escapist trend in films released during the depression. Some of the films we will be watching will probably be new to you, like Frank Capra's Why We Fight. Others you might have already see n on TV like Rebel without A Cause starring James Deane, or Stanley Cooper's Doctor's Strange Love. However, I ho pe you see even familiar film with new eye. In the last th ree weeks of the course, we will be watching films from t he 1980s and you'll choose one of them as a subject for a n extensive written critique. We'll talk more about the requ irements of the critique later in this semester.6. 990848 文科段子:历史发展Last time, we outlined how the Civil War finally got started. I want to talk today about the political managemen t of the war on both sides: the north under Abraham Linc oln and the south under Jefferson Davis. An important task for both of these presidents was to justify for their citizen s just why the war was necessary. In 1861, on July 4th, L incoln gave his first major speech in which he presented t he northern reasons for the war. It was, he said, to preserv e democracy. Lincoln suggested that this war was a noble crusade that would determine the future of democracy through out the world. For him the issue was whether or not t his government of the people, by the people could maintai n its integrity, could it remain complete and survive its do mestic foes. In other words, could a few discontented indiv iduals and by that he meant those who led the southern re bellion, could they arbitrarily break up the government and put an end to free government on earth? The only way f or the nation to survive was to crush the rebellion. At the time, he was hopeful that the war wouldn't last long and the slave owners would be put down forever, but he under estimated how difficult the war would be. It would be har der than any the Americans had thought before or since, la rgely because the north had to break the will of the southe rn people, not just by its army. But Lincoln rallied norther ners to a deep commitment to the cause. They came to pe rceive the war as a kind of democratic crusade against sou thern society7. 981042 文科段子:传媒变迁Moving away from newspapers, let's now focus on ma gazines. Now the first magazine was a little periodical call ed the Review and it was started in London in 1704. It looked a lot like the newspapers of the time, but in terms o f its contents it was much different. Newspapers were conc erned mainly with news events but the Review focused on important domestic issues of the day, as well as the polic ies of the government. Now, in England at the time, peopl e could still be thrown in jail for publishing articles that were critical of the king. And that is what happened to Da niel Defoe. He was the outspoken founder of the review. Defoe actually wrote the first issue of the Review from pri son. You see, he had been arrested because of his writings that criticized the policies of the Church of England, whic h was headed by the king. After his release, Defoe continu ed to produce the Review and the magazine started to app ear on a more frequent schedule, about three times a week. It didn't take long for other magazines to start popping u p. In 1709, a magazine called the Tattler began publication. This new magazine contained a mixture of news, poetry, political analysis and philosophical essays.8. 971035 理科段子:远程教育Hi, Lynn. I saw you at registration yesterday. I sailed right through, but you were standing in a long line.Yeah. I waited an hour to sign up for a distance-learn ing course.Distance learning? Never heard of it.Well, it's new this semester. It's only open to psychol ogy majors. But I bet it'll catch on else where. Yesterday, over a hundred students signed up.Well, what is it?It's an experimental course. I registered for child psyc hology. All I have got to do is watch a twelve-week serie s of televised lessons. The department shows them seven d ifferent times a day and in seven different locations.Don't you ever have to meet with professor?Yeah. After each part of the series I have to talk to her and the other students on the phone, you know, about our ideas. Then we'll meet on campus three times for revie ws and exams.It sounds pretty non-traditional to me. But I guess it makes sense, considering how many students have jobs. It must really help with their schedules, not to mention how it will cut down on traffic.You know, last year my department did a survey and they found out that 80 percent of all psychology majors were employed. That's why they came up with the program.Look, I'll be working three days a week next semester and it was either cut back on my classes or try this out.The only thing is: doesn't it seem impersonal though?I mean, I miss having class discussions and hearing what other people think.Well, I guess that's why phone contact's important. An y way, it's an experiment.Maybe I'll end up hating it.Maybe. But I'll be curious to see how it works up.9. 970539 生活段子:游览沼泽地公园Welcome to Everglade's National Park. The Everglade is a watery plain covered with saw grass that's the home t o numerous species of plants and wild life. And one and half million acre is too big to see it all today. But this to ur will offer you a good sampling. Our tour bus will stop first at Tailor Slue. This is a good place to start because it's home to many of the plants and animals typically ass ociated with the everglade. You'll see many exotic birds an d of course a world famous alligators. Don't worry. There's a boardwalk that goes across the marsh, so you can lookdown at the animals in the water from a safe distance. T he boardwalk is high enough to give you a great view of the saw grass prairie. From there we'll head at some other marshy and even jungle-like areas that feature wonderful t ropical plant life. For those of you who'd like a close vie w of the saw grass prairie, you might consider running a canoe sometime during your visit here. However, don't do this unless you have a very good sense of direction and ca n negotiate your way through tall grass. We hate to have t o come looking for you. You have a good fortune of bein g here in the winter, the best time of the year to visit. Du ring the spring and summer the mosquitoes will just about to eat you alive. Right now, they are not so bothersome, but you'll soon want to use an insect repellent.10. 000147 理科段子:地理冒险Good morning, class. Before we begin today, I would like to address an issue that one of you reminded me of after the last lecture. As you may recall, last time I menti oned that Robert E. Peary was the first person to reach th e North Pole. What I neglected to mention was the contro versy around Peary's pioneering accomplishment. In 1910, acommittee of the national geographical society examined Commodore Peary's claim to have reached the North Pole on April 6th,1909 and found no reason to doubt him. This judgment was actually confirmed by a committee of the US congress in 1911. Nevertheless, Peary's claim was surro unded by controversy. Tins was largely due to the competi ng claim of Doctor Frederic Cook who told the world he had reached the Pole a four-year earlier. Over the decades Peary was given the benefit of the doubt, but critics persis ted in raising questions about his navigation and the distan ces he claimed to have covered. So the Navigation Founda tion spent an additional 12 months of exhaustive examinati on of documents relating to Peary's polar expedition. The d ocuments supposed Peary's claims about the distances he c overed. After also conducting an extensive computer analys is of photos taken by Peary at the pole, they concluded th at Pierre and his companions did in fact reach the near vic inity of the North Pole on April 6th. 1909. OK, today we' re going to talk about exploration of the opposite end of t he world, I assume you all read chapter 3 in our text and are now familiar with the names: Emerson and Scott.。