新世纪大学英语综合教程4cloze部分的汉语意思及答案

Unit 1

Man has a blood tie with nature and nobody can live outside nature. Nature provides us with everything we need: the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. For quite a long time after man began to live in the realm of nature, he lived in fear of its destructive forces. He used to regard nature with its elemental forces as something hostile to him. And even the forest was something wild and frightening to him. Very often, he was unable to obtain the merest daily necessities though he worked together with others stubbornly and collectively with his imperfect tools. Through his interaction with nature, man changed it gradually. He cut down forest, cultivated land, transferred various species of plants and animals to different climatic conditions, changed the shape and climate of his environment and transformed plants and animals. He subdued and disciplined electricity and compelled it to serve the interests of society.

Nonetheless, with the constant expansion of agriculture and industry, man has robbed nature too much of its irreplaceable resources, polluted his own living environment and caused about 95% of the species that have existed over the past 600

million years to become extinct and still many others to be endangered. The previous dynamic balance between man and nature is on the verge of breaking down. Man is now faced with the problem of how to stop, or at least to moderate the destructive effect of technology on nature.

The crisis of the ecological situation has become a global problem. The solution to the problem depends on rational and wise organization both of production itself and care for Mother Nature. This can only be done by all humanity, rather than by individuals, enterprises or separate countries.

1 realm 2 elemental 3 obtain 4 stubbornly 5 transferred 6 transformed 7 subdued 8 expansion 9 irreplaceable 10 extinct 11 dynamic 12 verge 13 moderate 14 ecological 15 rational

Unit 2

Technology is a \issue nowadays. The defenders of technology stress its advantages while the opponents emphasize its disadvantages. Neither side has ever taken the time to look at the opposite point of view.

The defenders of technology hold that with technology, people's living conditions have been greatly improved. For example, the boom in productivity has made goods better and

cheaper. Therefore, things that were once luxuries, such as jet travel and long-distance phone calls, have become necessities. Medical technology, in particular, has benefited us a lot, especially in prolonging life expectancy.

On the other hand, the opponents of technology argue that technology makes life obviously worse. Telemarketing, traffic jams, and identity theft are all phenomena that make people consciously unhappy. In addition, many people believe technology disrupts relationships and fractures community. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the relationship between happiness and technology has been an eternal subject for social critics and philosophers, though economists and social scientists have seldom touched on the topic. However, in 1974 the economist Richard Easterlin did groundbreaking work on the relationship between prosperity and well-being. In his famous paper entitled \Economic Growth Improve the

Human Lot\Easterlin showed that there was no real correlation between a nation's income level and its citizens' happiness in the developed countries.

In fact, technology is neither good nor bad. It depends on what we want to do with it. Therefore, the responsibility belongs exclusively to humans who have to acquire a social

conscience, to respect human beings, nature and its balances.

1 emphasize 2 opposite 3 improved 4 luxuries 5 benefited 6 obviously 7 consciously 8 fractures 9 eternal 10 groundbreaking 11 entitled 12 correlation 13 depends 14 exclusively

Unit 4

Most people have work to do. With work, they can enjoy their lives. However, people who did physical labor were looked down upon in the past. Many people were compelled to take manual labor because it was an absolute necessity for them to earn a living and to support their families. By contrast, people who did mental work were highly respected. Under the influence of this idea, even today some people still idealize their future when making choices for their career. What they care most about is whether the job can give them enough social status rather than whether they can realize their values in it. In their eyes, those who do manual labor should still be classified as inferior in social status.

In fact, there is no essential difference between those who work with their hands and those who work with their mind. Whether a job is labor or work does not depend on the job