新概念英語文章朗讀

　　新概念英語和微信新概念英語***New Concept English***是一套由英國人編寫的最能體現英語文化的最經典、最權威、最正規、最系統的英語學習教材。多年來深受非英語國家英語學習者的信賴。下面是小編帶來的下載，歡迎閱讀!

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　　Telecommuting

　　電子交通

　　Telecommuting - substituting the computer for the trip to the job - has been hailed as a solution to all kinds of problems related to office work.

　　電子交通——用電腦取代上班的往返——作為對各種各樣的辦公室工作問題的解決辦法已受到了歡迎。

　　For workers it promises freedom from the office, less time wasted in traffic, and help with child-care conflicts. For management, telecommuting helps keep high performers on board, minimizes tardiness and absenteeism by eliminating commutes, allows periods of solitude for high-concentration tasks, and provides scheduling flexibility. In some areas, such as Southern California and Seattle, Washington, local governments are encouraging companies to start telecommuting programs in order to reduce rush-hour congestion and improve air quality.

　　對工作者來說，它承諾不受辦公室的約束，更少的時間浪費在交通上和有助於解決照看小孩的矛盾。對管理者來說，電子交通有助於挽留高效率的工作者，通過省去辦公室與家之間的來回往返，大大減少工作拖拉和曠工，給予管理者獨處的時間來完成需要高度集中精神的任務，為管理者提供靈活的時間安排。在一些地區，如南加利福尼亞和西雅圖、華盛頓，地方政府鼓勵公司開始電子交通計劃以減少交通高峰時的塞車和提高空氣質量。

　　But these benefits do not come easily. Making a telecommuting program work requires careful planning and an understanding of the differences between telecommuting realities and popular images.

　　但這些益處也來之不易。要使電子交通成功需要仔細的計劃並且理解電子交通的現實狀況和流行的想象之間的區別。

　　Many workers are seduced by rosy illusions of life as a telecommuter. A computer programmer from New York City moves to the tranquil Adirondack Mountains and stays in contact with her office via computer. A manager comes in to his office three days a week and works at home the other two. An accountant stays home to care for her sick child; she hooks up her telephone modern connections and does office work between calls to the doctor.

　　許多工作者被電子交通的美好幻想所迷惑。一位電腦程式設計員從紐約市搬到了寧靜的阿第倫達克山，用電腦保持與她辦公室之間的聯絡。一位經理一週三天到辦公室，其他兩天在家工作;一位會計師在家照顧她生病的孩子，接通電話調變解調器的接頭，在同醫生通話之餘完成辦公室工作。

　　These are powerful images, but they are a limited reflection of reality. Telecommuting workers soon learn that it is almost impossible to concentrate on work and care for a young child at the same time. Before a certain age, young children cannot recognize, much less respect, the necessary boundaries between work and family. Additional child support is necessary if the parent is to get any work done. Management too must separate the myth from the reality. Although the media has paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting in most cases it is the employee’s situation, not the availability of technology that precipitates a telecommuting arrangement.

　　這些是很有震撼力的情景，但也是對現實有限的反映。電子交通者很快發現在同一時間專注工作和照看小孩幾乎是不可能的。在某個年齡之前，小孩子不可能意識到，更不可能尊重工作與家庭之間的界限。如果家長要完成工作，就必須另外照看小孩。管理階層必須把現實同神話分開。雖然傳媒對電子交通投入了極大的關注，但在很大程度上，是員工的實際情況而不是技術的可能性促成電子交通的安排。

　　That is partly why, despite the widespread press coverage, the number of companies with work-at-home programs or policy guidelines remains small.

　　這就是為什麼儘管有廣泛的報導，具有在家工作專案或行動綱領的公司數目依然很少的部分原因。

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　　The Origin of Refrigerators

　　冰箱的由來

　　By the mid-nineteenth century, the term “icebox” had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War***1861-1865***,as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880,half of the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had been invented.

　　直到19世紀中期，"冰箱"這個名詞才進入了美國語言，但冰僅僅只是開始影響美國普通市民的飲食。冰的買賣隨著城市的發展而發展。冰被用在旅館、酒館、醫院以及被一些有眼光的城市商人用於肉、魚和黃油的保鮮。內戰***1861-1865***之後，冰被用於冷藏貨車，同時也進入了民用。甚至在1880年前，半數在紐約、費城和巴爾的摩銷售的冰，三分之一在波士頓和芝加哥銷售的冰進入家庭使用，因為一種新的家庭裝置，冰箱，即現代冰箱的前身，被髮明瞭。

　　Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.

　　製造一臺有效率的冰箱不像我們想象的那麼簡單。19世紀早期，關於對冷藏科學至關重要的熱物理知識是很淺陋的。認為最好的冰箱應該防止冰的融化這樣一個普遍的觀點顯然是錯誤的，因為正是冰的融化起了製冷作用。早期為節省冰的努力，包括用毯子把冰包起來，使得冰不能發揮它的作用。直到近19世紀末，發明家們才成功地找到有效率的冰箱所需要的精確的隔熱和迴圈的精確平衡。

　　But as early as 1803, and ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.

　　但早在1803年，一位有發明天才的馬里蘭農場主，托馬斯·莫爾，找到了正確方法。他擁有一個農場，離華盛頓約20英里，那裡的喬治鎮村莊是集市中心。當他用自己設計的冰箱運送黃油去市場時，他發現顧客們會走過裝在競爭者桶裡那些迅速融化的黃油而給他比市價更高的價格買他仍然新鮮堅硬，整齊地切成一磅一塊的黃油。莫爾說他的冰箱的一個好處是使得農民們不必在夜裡上路去市場以保持他們產品的低溫。

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　　英屬哥倫比亞

　　British Columbia is the third largest Canadian province, both in area and population. It is nearly 1.5 times as large as Texas, and extends 800 miles ***1,280km*** north from the United States border. It includes Canada’s entire west coast and the islands just off the coast.

　　英屬哥倫比亞是加拿大的第三大省，無論是面積還是人口都是如此。它幾乎是德克薩斯的1.5倍，從美國邊境一直向北延伸了800英里***1,280公里***。它包括了加拿大整個西海岸及附近島嶼。

　　Most of British Columbia is mountainous, with long rugged ranges running north and south. Even the coastal islands are the remains of a mountain range that existed thousands of years ago. During the last Ice Age, this range was scoured by glaciers until most of it was beneath the sea. Its peaks now show as islands scatteredalong the coast.

　　大部分英屬哥倫比亞多山巒。綿長而粗獷的山脈貫通南北。甚至那些沿海的島嶼都是那些存在於千萬年前的山脈的遺蹟。在上一個冰河時期，這些山脈被冰河沖刷侵蝕，直到大部分山脈被淹沒在海中。它們的峰頂顯現為沿著海岸散佈的島嶼。

　　The southwestern coastal region has a humid mild marine climate. Sea winds that blow inland from the west are warmed by a current of warm water that flows through the Pacific Ocean. As a result, winter temperatures average above freezing and summers are mild. These warm western winds also carry moisture from the ocean.

　　西南海岸地區有著潮溼溫和的海洋性氣候。從太平洋來的溫暖的洋流使得從西吹過內陸的海風變得溫暖。因此這兒冬天平均氣溫在零上而且夏天也不會酷熱。這些溫暖的西風同樣也從海洋帶來了溼氣。

　　Inland from the coast, the winds from the Pacific meet the mountain barriers of the coastal ranges and the Rocky Mountains. As they rise to cross the mountains, the winds are cooled, and their moisture begins to fall as rain. On some of the western slopes almost 200 inches ***500cm*** of rain fall each year.

　　來自太平洋的、從海岸向內陸的風遇到海岸山脈和落基山脈這些山脈屏障。當氣流升高跨越這些山脈時，風的溫度就降低了，風中的水分形成降雨。在一些朝西山坡區域每年大約有200英寸***500釐米***的降水。

　　More than half of British Columbia is heavily forested. On mountain slopes that receive plentiful rainfall, huge Douglas firs rise in towering columns. These forest giants often grow to be as much as 300 feet ***90m*** tall, with diameters up to 10 feet ***3m***. More lumber is produced from these trees than from any other kind of tree in North America. Hemlock, red cedar, and balsam fir are among the other trees found in British Columbia.

　　大部分英屬哥倫比亞密佈著森林。在有充足降水的斜坡，巨大的道格拉斯樅樹高聳入雲。這些森林巨人常常長到高達300英尺***90米***，直徑粗達10英尺***3米***。這些樹產出了比北美其他任何樹都多的木材。鐵杉、紅香椿、香脂冷杉樅都是發現於英屬哥倫比亞的其它樹種。