新世纪英语高二全部课文及重点词组

　　On June fifth, I took the flag and reached Ryan’s starting point early. By then, the streets had begun to fill with students from the surrounding schools and the area residents. Everyone was excited. Then came the van that carried the torch runners. All of the runners got out except Ryan. They lined up outside of the van and began to chant his name. Ryan! Ryan! Then all of the people that lined the streets joined in. Ryan! Ryan! All I could do was not to cry.

　　The lift then lowered Ryan to the ground. There he was, in all his glory. People saw him for Ryan and not for his wheelchair. It all became slow motion at the sight of the arriving torch. I gave Ryan a hug and then stepped into my spot. The runner lit Ryan’s torch and then Ryan began his journey. As he took off down the street, the chanting became louder and louder. The excitement filled the air. I could not have been any prouder of Ryan! He deserved this moment in time---a historic moment that he was a part of and allowed me to be a part of, too.

　　That moment will last in time forever. It expressed the whole meaning of the flame: love, enthusiasm, and brotherhood. It showed us all that love is really what makes this small world go around.

　　25. The father of modern physics

　　Albert Einstein was born of Jewish parents in 1879 in Germany. He did badly in most subjects at school, but was fascinated by mathematics, which he did quite well. When he was fifteen, his family moved to Italy, and from there he went to Switzerland to attend a polytechnic school.

　　After gaining a teaching qualification from the polytechnic, Einstein took a post as a junior clerk in an office. Einstein was happy to get such an easy job, because it gave him plenty of time to think about physics. It was the “thought experiments” that he carried out in his head that led to a new understanding of space, time and gravity(引力).

　　In 1905, when he was twenty-six years old, Einstein began to publish his thoughts. One of his theories provided an explanation for a puzzling effect, called the photoelectric effect(光电效应), which had been noticed some years earlier. It was in 1921 that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect.

　　In 1914, Einstein became a professor of physics at the University of Berlin and all went well until Hitler came to power in 1933. Einstein, who was Jewish, spoke out against Nazi crimes. As a result, he had to leave Germany and spent the rest of his life teaching in the United States at Princeton University.

　　In the long course of research, Einstein developed his theories of relativity. These theories were so different and new that most scientists could do not believe or understand them, and it took a long time for them to be accepted.

　　Einstein’s theories also predicted that solid objects can be changed into pure energy. This did lead to the development of nuclear power(核能) and the atomic bomb(原子弹). However, Einstein himself protested against nuclear weapons, and became involved in the peace movement after the First World War.

　　Einstein passed away in 1955 at the age of seventy-six. What he left behind is a wealth of ideas that form the foundation of modern physics today.

　　Apart from his scientific work, Einstein found much pleasure in simple pastimes. Among his hobbies were sailing and playing the violin. Besides, he loved the company of children.

　　Although he was one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, Einstein did not take himself seriously. Once, when asked to enter a newspaper competition to write an article explaining how light is bent by gravity, he joked that the competition was much too difficult for him to enter.

　　26. The survival of the fittest

　　For a long time people had wondered how life had developed on earth. The Bible(圣经) stated that god had created everything in a week. Some people did not believe this. “What about fossils?” they asked. “What has happened to the strange creatures which existed so many years ago?” they asked.

　　Charles Darwin(查尔斯·罗伯特·达尔文，英国生物学家 <http://baike.baidu.com/view/67001.htm>，进化论奠基人), a young man just out of university in 1831, was offered a job on a ship on a voyage of discovery around the world. Life on board was tough. Darwin was terribly seasick and was only happy when he was ashore collecting plant samples and observing animals. It was to be the most important journey in his life. It lasted for five years; he returned in October 1836.

　　Darwin studied nature in South America and in a group of small islands in the South Pacific. On each island there were birds. They were very similar, but the shape of their beaks, and even their eating habits varied. Darwin wondered why they were different. Then he realized that, long before, they had been the same. Each island had different foods available. Only the birds that could eat available food could survive, this might depend on having the right shape of beak. He realized that the same process happened with all living things. Over millions of years, all plants and animals have gradually changed into the forms we see today. What we call “the survival of the fittest” he named “natural selection”. Darwin called this slow process of change “evolution”. It explains why many kinds of creature, whose fossil remains, are no longer alive.

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