People aren’t walking any more--- if they can figure out a way to avoid it.
I felt superior about this matter until the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel. The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn’t in any hurry, either, I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.
It is an illness to which I had thought myself immune(免疫的), for I was bred in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. At that time, we regarded 25 miles as good day’s walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as a sign of strength and skill. It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced –and beat—a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Stature of Liberty.
Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrhams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper exercise. A person who avoids exercise is more likely to have illnesses than one who exercises regularly. And walking is an ideal form of exercise--- the most familiar and natural of all.
It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the trees, flower, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world. He cannot learn in a car.
The car is a convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don’t dare to approach Nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat. To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.
I say that the green of forests is the mind’s best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.
【小题1】What was life like when the author was young?
A.People usually went around on foot. |
B.people often walked 25 miles a day |
C.People used to climb the Statue of Liberty. |
D.people considered a ten-hour walk as a hardship. |
A.middle-aged people like getting back to nature |
B.walking in nature helps enrich one’s mind |
C.people need regular exercise to keep fit |
D.going on foot prevents heart disease |
A.A queue of cars |
B.A ray of traffic light |
C.A flash of lightning |
D.A stream of people |
A.To tell people to reflect more on life. |
B.To recommend people to give up driving |
C.To advise people to do outdoor activities |
D.To encourage people to return to walking |
One couple who downshifted is Daniel and Liz. They used to work in central London. They would go to work by train every day from their large house in the suburbs, leaving their two children with a nanny. Most evenings Daniel wouldn’t get home until eight or nine o'clock. They both earned a large amount of money but began to feel that life was passing them by.
Nowadays, they run a farm in the mountains of Wales. “I always wanted to have a farm then,” says Daniel, “and we took almost a year to make the decision to downshift. It’s taken some getting used to, but it’s been worth it. I think it’s made us stronger as a family, and the children are a lot happier.
Liz, “I’m gradually getting used to looking after the animals. One thing I do like, though, is being able to see more of my children. My advice for other people wanting to do the same is not to think about it too much or you might not do it at all.”
【小题1】The passage tells us that .
A.people seldom work long hours to make money |
B.people hardly buy more things than necessary |
C.people are sure everything they own is in the right place |
D.people realize there is more to life than just making money |
A.was easy to organize | B.has improved family life |
C.was extremely expensive | D.has been a total success |
A.People work long hours to earn their living. |
B.To make more money through hard work is the aim of people’s life. |
C.Long hours of hard work occupy too much of people’s life. |
D.People spent too much time and money eating meals. |
A.repairing your car by yourself |
B.spending money carefully |
C.moving out to the countryside to live a simpler and better life |
D.living in a big house in the suburbs and dining out once a week |
Statuses are marvelous human inventions that enable us to get along with one another and to determine where we “fit” in society. As we go about our everyday lives,
The statuses we assume often vary with the people we encounter, and change throughout life.
A.Most of us perform it rather effortlessly. |
B.we tend to be limited to what the stores have on their racks. |
C.identifying others’ statuses can be easy |
D.Most of us can assume the statuses that various situations require |
E.A status has been compared to ready-made clothes |
F.we attempt to determine whether a person is fit for a certain job |
G.we mentally attempt to place people in terms of their statuses |
We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Indian burial mound.
Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly—tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.
It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us had reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence(青春期). In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that we really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.
【小题1】The author and his friends were often out in the woods to _______.
A.spend their free time |
B.play golf and other sports |
C.avoid doing their schoolwork |
D.keep away from their parents |
A.The activities in the woods were well planned. |
B.Human history is not the result of exploration. |
C.Exploration should be a systematic activity. |
D.The author explored in the woods aimlessly. |
A.calm | B.doubtful | C.serious | D.optimistic |
A.Happy but short. |
B.Lonely but memorable. |
C.Boring and meaningless. |
D.Long and unforgettable. |
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