都是我多方收集的，希望能帮上忙。。。尽管自己没用上呵呵。。。
6 _% _) O3 F/ Y! W
9 y8 G* r0 s6 l1 z, d. b+ tRichard Nixon, U.S. President In a dramatic comeback, Nixon defeated Hubert H. Humphrey in the presidential elections of 1968, then easily won re-election in 1972. Although he had an aggressive foreign policy that included successes with China, the Soviet Union and the Middle East, a weak economy and domestic dissent over the Vietnam war plagued his administration. His personal style remains a point of public contention: Nixon was either a hard-driving genius or a dirty sneak, depending on the observer's point of view. After his 1972 re-election, Nixon's administration was consumed by the developing Watergate scandal, so named for the hotel and office complex where burglars sponsored by Nixon's re-election campaign were caught attempting to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee. On 8 August 1974 Nixon resigned in shame, his involvement in the Watergate cover-up having been proven by recordings he himself had made. He was replaced by Gerald Ford, who granted Nixon a full presidential pardon.
( H2 B' r) v% w7 I+ N% }
Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve, and one of the most powerful financial men in America, from 1988 until his retirement in 2006. Greenspan had a brief fling as a professional jazz saxophonist before attending New York University and then joining an economics consulting firm in New York City in 1954. He advised presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and was named Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve System in 1987, a post he held under presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush the elder, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. As chairman, Greenspan was largely responsible for directing U.S. national monetary policy; he is often credited with keeping inflation at historically low levels, and sometimes criticized for the boom-and-bust nature of the economy in dot-com era. He stepped down from the post on 31 January 2006, and was succeeded by former Princeton econonomics department chair Ben Bernanke.
; X, [: T, p) H& b7 @* R2 kRonald Reagan President of the United States from 1981-1989, Ronald Reagan was known as a staunch conservative, a cheery optimist, and an implacable foe of Soviet communism. Reagan began his career as a sports announcer on radio, then moved to Hollywood and became a movie star. Reagan made over fifty movies as a reliable supporting actor or benign leading man, but his real calling seemed to be in politics. He served as the governor of California (1967-75) and then in 1980 defeated Democrat Jimmy Carter to become the 40th U.S. president. He advocated lower taxes and higher defense spending, and aggressively challenged the Soviet Union. The final years of his administration were clouded by a back-door scheme to fund anti-communist forces in Central America -- the so-called Iran Contra affair -- but the popular president emerged from the scandal unscathed. He stepped down after two full terms and was succeeded by his vice-president, George Bush the elder. In 1994 Reagan announced that he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease. He spent the next ten years in seclusion and increasingly poor health until his death in 2004.
5 ]* ?( l2 q. h2 a0 Q x, |2 R5 L: B% R" X/ z2 p8 D
Braille system A system of raised-dot writing devised by Louis Braille (1809-1852) for the blind in which each letter is represented as a raised pattern that can be read by touching with the fingers.
" Z# G K! \/ v) N) ]3 eMichelangelo Buonarroti Perhaps the greatest influence on western art in the last five centuries, Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, architect, painter and poet in the period known as the High Renaissance. His great works were almost entirely in the service of the Catholic Church, and include a huge statue of the Biblical hero David (over 14 feet tall) in Florence, sculpted between 1501 and 1504, and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome (commissioned by Pope Julius II), painted between 1508 and 1512. After 1519 Michelangelo was increasingly active in architecture; he designed the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, completed after his death. Along with contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, he is considered one of the great masters of European art.Michelangelo's David was sculpted during almost the same years that da Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa.
( P8 R9 @ g( c! x% J" H5 S- L& A
p7 g/ s: O- x' m. _Michelangelo drew extensively as a child, and his father placed him under the tutelage of Ghirlandaio, a respected artist of the day. After one unproductive year, Michelangelo became the student of Bertoldo di Giovanni, a sculptor employed by the Medici family. From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo lived with the Medicis; during this time he learned from such philosophers as Ficino, Landino, Poliziano, and Savonarola. Although Michelangelo claimed that he was self-taught, one might perceive in his work the influence of such artists as Leonardo, Giotto, and Poliziano. He learned to paint and sculpt more by observation than by tutelage. Michelangelo was known to be extremely sensitive, and he combined an excess of energy with an excess of talent.
; y4 }1 z# N/ C- z9 L& c+ Y W, \
Leonardo da Vinci is best remembered as the painter of the Mona Lisa (1503-1506) and The Last Supper (1495). But he's almost equally famous for his astonishing multiplicity of talents: he dabbled in architecture, sculpture, engineering, geology, hydraulics and the military arts, all with success, and in his spare time doodled parachutes and flying machines that resembled inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries. He made detailed drawings of human anatomy which are still highly regarded today. Leonardo also was quirky enough to write notebook entries in mirror (backwards) script, a trick which kept many of his observations from being widely known until decades after his death.
9 w" q3 u, V0 c; A3 Q! ISupreme Court The rise in importance of the Supreme Court began with the appointment by President John Adams in 1801 of John Marshall, his secretary of state, to succeed Ellsworth. This appointment was widely interpreted as the symbol of the desire of the Federalists who had lost the recent election to retain control of the judicial branch after Thomas Jefferson and his supporters took over the presidency and Congress. This illustrates the extent to which the institutional mechanisms of checks and balances can help a repudiated political party. Given the lifetime tenure of justices, the Supreme Court is almost by definition a "conservative" force, even if what is being "conserved" is the liberal vision of an earlier party.
3 p9 A' a( n3 t) E/ v) d$ Z! y) s5 x3 S* {5 s
Kyoto Protocol An agreement on global warming reached by the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. The major industrial nations pledged to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012. (See greenhouse effect.) Although the American delegation signed the protocol, the United States Senate has refused to ratify the treaty, mainly because it believes that the targeted reductions are so steep that they will produce a severe economic slump. • Attacking the U.S. position as selfish, European governments have been extremely critical of the U.S. refusal to ratify the protocol.
" Q z- \. X8 p5 V! C9 W! ?# Z
2 U0 u2 U! j* \- JPentagon Papers, government study of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in June, 1967, the 47-volume, top secret study covered the period from World War II to May, 1968. It was written by a team of analysts who had access to classified documents, and was completed in Jan., 1969. The study revealed a considerable degree of miscalculation, bureaucratic arrogance, and deception on the part of U.S. policymakers. In particular, it found that the U.S. government had continually resisted full disclosure of increasing military involvement in Southeast Asia—air strikes over Laos, raids along the coast of North Vietnam, and offensive actions by U.S. marines had taken place long before the American public was informed. On June 13, 1971, the New York Times began publishing a series of articles based on the study. The Justice Dept. obtained a court injunction against further publication on national security grounds, but the Supreme Court ruled (June 30) that constitutional guarantees of a free press overrode other considerations, and allowed further publication. The government indicted (1971) Daniel Ellsberg, a former government employee who made the Pentagon Papers available to the New York Times, and Anthony J. Russo on charges of espionage, theft, and conspiracy. On May 11, 1973, a federal court judge dismissed all charges against them because of improper government conduct.
R0 U) R# m! Y- ^- AWhile it was a victory for the First Amendment, many felt it was a lukewarm victory at best, offering little protection for future publishers when claims of national security are at stake.
/ V: X) T) n& l6 [' s# C) P* ~& K! v
4 N2 D$ X% L, z* S! h
1.Guevara, Che, real name Ernesto Guevara (1928-1967), Latin American guerrilla leader and revolutionary theorist, who became a hero to the New Left radicals of the 1960s. Born into a middle-class family in Rosario, Argentina, Guevara received a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1953. Convinced that revolution was the only remedy for Latin America's social inequities, in 1954 he went to Mexico, where he joined exiled Cuban revolutionaries under Fidel Castro. In the late 1950s, he played an important role in Castro's guerrilla war against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, and when Castro came to power, he served as Cuba's minister of industry (1961-1965). A strong opponent of U.S. influence in the Third World, he helped guide the Castro regime on its leftward and pro-Communist path. The author of two books on guerrilla warfare, Guevara advocated peasant-based revolutionary movements in the developing countries. He disappeared from Cuba in 1965, reappearing the following year as an insurgent leader in Bolivia. He was captured by the Bolivian army and shot near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967.
, K4 I/ y9 y. y" q0 k$ V
( i+ U I& ]0 h- f; Q0 Z7 y' H& I2. Copernicus, Nicolaus (1473-1543), Polish astronomer, best known for his astronomical theory that the sun is at rest near the center of the universe, and that the earth, spinning on its axis once daily, revolves annually around the sun. This is called the heliocentric, or sun-centered, system.
, ?( d9 `5 v% F7 a1 m9 i
/ n% ^, P6 {# y" b. dIn the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus developed the heliocentric model of the solar system, in which the Sun is stationary at the center, and Earth moves around it. This view of the solar system challenged Ptolemy’s geocentric model, which had been the accepted theory since the 2nd century. In Ptolemy’s model, Earth is stationary in the center of the solar system, and the other planets and the Sun move in complex orbits around it. The Copernican model gradually gained acceptance, because it provided a simpler explanation of the planets' motions.
+ r; `. G5 b( \" i: a% K8 l$ a, h7 [% N% Y6 L
Bruno, Giordano (1548?-1600), Italian Renaissance philosopher and poet, whose dramatic death gives a special significance to his writings.
1 k/ ?5 `; N& K* Kthe Inquisition 宗教审判所
/ a: b' x, \+ Y9 M
get burned at stake
$ H B1 Z! y7 k: ~% ^+ C
-16c. Bruno "perhaps you might judge the sentence ..."
' q" [* h$ w/ ^. y% Y! p
; o& e" c7 W5 v# H* q
3. Schubert, Franz Peter (1797-1828), Austrian composer, whose songs are among romantic masterpieces in that genre and whose instrumental works reflect a classical heritage as well as 19th-century romanticism.
* Q- t$ Z* | V虽然，舒柏特的歌曲和音乐作品当时在维也纳的市民中已家喻户晓、广为流传了。但却因得不到官方的赏识而难于出版和演出。舒柏特在生前，甚至还没能听到过自己创作的交响曲的演出。一八一五年，他写出了不朽的名曲《魔王》，但是一直过了五年，出版商才勉强答应为他出版这首歌曲，其条件是不付给他稿费。他写的《流浪者》一歌出版后，只拿到两盾钱（ 盾Gulden：奥地利钱币名。值美金48.2分。），而出版商却从这个作品中总共赚取了二万七千盾。他逝世前病在床上没钱买药时，朋友们把他写的《冬之旅》送到出版商那里去，但出版商仅给其中的《菩提树》一歌付了一盾钱。十年以后，德国音乐家舒曼在舒柏特的弟弟的家里，发现了舒相特的许多珍贵手稿。这些手稿一直来根本无人问津，更谈不上予以出版。
* G5 F/ A8 V/ P5 D
6 Q, B% h' Y. z) |! b# f3. Lycra: A new enthusiasm for physical fitness also had a significant and continuing impact on fashion in the 1980s. The popularity of jogging and aerobics introduced people to stretch fabrics such as Lycra, which soon moved from active sportswear into mainstream apparel. Trousers, shirts, and skirts featured this lightweight, expandable fabric that moved with the body. Athletic shoes also became fashionable.
2 j1 H/ `( c- c: S% n1 L9 j+ K7 r5 E+ {2 h- u) l2 d7 c! C
4. nanotechnology: Nanotechnology, or, as it is sometimes called, molecular manufacturing, is a branch of engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small electronic circuits and mechanical devices built at the molecular level of matter. The Institute of Nanotechnology in the U.K. expresses it as "science and technology where dimensions and tolerances in the range of 0.1 nanometer (nm) to 100 nm play a critical role." Nanotechnology is often discussed together with micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), a subject that usually includes nanotechnology but may also include technologies higher than the molecular level.
- N9 C5 N6 U" e2 M# D7 S8 U0 J4 X8 _
Nanotechnology holds promise in the quest for ever-more-powerful computers and communications devices. But the most fascinating (and potentially dangerous) applications are in medical science. So-called nanorobots might serve as programmable antibodies. As disease-causing bacteria and viruses mutate in their endless attempts to get around medical treatments, nanorobots could be reprogrammed to selectively seek out and destroy them. Other nanorobots might be programmed to single out and kill cancer cells.
' u% R7 P1 S8 N$ e) U# ~
5. Smith, Adam (economist) (1723-1790), British philosopher and economist, whose celebrated treatise An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was the first serious attempt to study the nature of capital and the historical development of industry and commerce among European nations.
& Y Z1 f* o+ t* aThe central thesis of The Wealth of Nations is that capital is best employed for the production and distribution of wealth under conditions of governmental noninterference, or laissez-faire, and free trade. In Smith's view, the production and exchange of goods can be stimulated, and a consequent rise in the general standard of living attained, only through the efficient operations of private industrial and commercial entrepreneurs acting with a minimum of regulation and control by governments. To explain this concept of government maintaining a laissez-faire attitude toward commercial endeavors, Smith proclaimed the principle of the “invisible hand”: Every individual in pursuing his or her own good is led, as if by an invisible hand, to achieve the best good for all. Therefore any interference with free competition by government is almost certain to be injurious.
S, L$ I9 R W1 n& S
1 R7 o3 x( K) U# ~4 fAlthough this view has undergone considerable modification by economists in the light of historical developments since Smith's time, many sections of The Wealth of Nations, notably those relating to the sources of income and the nature of capital, have continued to form the basis for theoretical study in the field of political economy. The Wealth of Nations has also served, perhaps more than any other single work in its field, as a guide to the formulation of governmental economic policies.
6 \0 ~" X2 I( f5 E2 Z0 D0 a' \7 X2 f" M. |6 ^
6. Free-Market Economy, economic system in which individuals, rather than government, make the majority of decisions regarding economic activities and transactions (see Capitalism). Individuals are free to make economic decisions concerning their employment, how to use or accumulate capital, what expenditures to make, and whether to use their resources now or to save them for later consumption. The principles underlying free-market economies are based on laissez-faire (non-intervention by government放任政策(尤指资本主义国家的政府对工商业者的自由)) economics and can be traced to the 18th century British economist Adam Smith. According to Smith, individuals acting in their own economic self-interest will maximize the economic situation of society as a whole, as if guided by an “invisible hand.” In a free-market economy the government's function is limited to providing what are known as “public goods” and performing a regulatory role in certain situations.
( c9 l$ o( l }# p7 `: w* L4 }% G1 P+ h' h
Public goods, which include defense, law and order, and education, have two characteristics: consumption by one individual does not reduce the amount of the good left for others; and the benefits that an individual receives do not depend on that person's contribution. An example is a lighthouse. One individual's use of light provided by a lighthouse does not reduce the ability of others to use it. In addition, the lighthouse owner cannot restrict individuals from using the light. The latter illustrates the “free-rider” phenomenon of public goods—both those who helped pay for the lighthouse and those who did not will enjoy the same amount of light. The “free-rider” problem can be eliminated if governments collect taxes and then provide public goods.
z6 T5 |# w2 O* }/ K& `8 _
$ N2 o! x# Z% w: o& h" v1 Z# S3 ZGovernment's role in a free-market economy also includes protecting private property, enforcing contracts, and regulating certain economic activities. Governments generally regulate “natural monopolies” such as utilities or rail service (see Monopoly). These industries require such a large investment that it would not be profitable to have more than one provider. Regulation is used in place of competition to prevent these monopolies from making excessive profits. Governments may also restrict economic freedom for the sake of protecting individual rights. Examples include laws that restrict child labor, prohibit toxic emissions, or forbid the sale of unsafe goods.
3 W& _+ k$ o. `6 r* H$ v S7 I4 B1 [5 q1 G8 m# M
Proponents of free-market economies believe they provide a number of advantages. They see free-market economies as encouraging individual responsibility for decisions and they believe that economic freedom is essential to political freedom. In addition, many people believe that free markets are more efficient in economic terms. Free markets provide incentives both to individuals to allocate resources, such as labor and capital, among the most productive uses, and to firms to produce goods and services that the public wants, using the most efficient means of production.
: L' g+ A! P- D' ]
% k5 n6 V- `- D$ m! J3 z% \/ V
Free-market economies are also criticized. Opponents believe that a free-market economy cannot ensure basic social values, such as alleviating poverty, or that the income distribution that results from a free-market economy may not be equitable. A free-market economy may also permit the accumulation of vast wealth and powerful vested interests that could threaten the survival of political freedom.
( Y# L( j# x6 A( \/ P
7 A$ M1 t6 {6 ^8 r1 H( H# m& \; h. oAlternative economic systems include communism and mixed economies. In communism, the government plans the economy and all means of production are publicly owned. The economy of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was an example of a planned economy: all decisions regarding production and distribution were made by the government. In contrast, a mixed economy is one where the government does some planning and owns or controls more industries than in a free-market economy. Governments may own key industries such as steel, aviation, and banking, while the individual still plays an important role. Sweden and France are examples of mixed economies.
: a% e: f# T' N) t7 N" h) E* I7 `; a2 J
7. 荷兰表现主义大师：梵高 Vincent Van Gogh
: G( o* E4 L2 U, y+ ]7 B* C, dGogh, Vincent Willem van (1853-1890), Dutch postimpressionist painter, whose work represents the archetype of expressionism, the idea of emotional spontaneity in painting. Van Gogh was born March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, son of a Dutch Protestant pastor. Early in life he displayed a moody, restless temperament that was to thwart his every pursuit. By the age of 27 he had been in turn a salesman in an art gallery, a French tutor, a theological student, and an evangelist among the miners at Wasmes in Belgium. His experiences as a preacher are reflected in his first paintings of peasants and potato diggers; of these early works, the best known is the rough, earthy Potato Eaters (1885, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam). Dark and somber, sometimes crude, these early works evidence van Gogh's intense desire to express the misery and poverty of humanity as he saw it among the miners in Belgium.
: @: ^8 f9 r% [* N
1853年，梵高生于荷兰的一个新教徒之家。少年时，他在伦敦、巴黎和海牙为画商工作，后来还在比利时的矿工中当过传教士。 1881年左右，他开始绘画。1886年去巴黎投奔其弟，初次接触了印象派的作品，对他产生影响的还有著名画家鲁本斯、日本版画和著名画家高更。 1888年，梵高开始以色彩为基础表达强烈的感情。他曾短暂与高更交往，后来神经失常，被送进精神病院。在经历多次感情上的崩溃之后，梵高于1890年在奥维尔自杀。他对野兽派及德国的表现主义有巨大影响。 梵高一生为人敏感而易怒，聪敏过人，在生前他在许多事情上很少取得成功。其个人生活不幸而且艰辛，可他却随时都有献身给别人的爱、友谊和对艺术的热情。 在短短的37年人生中，梵高把生命的最重要时期贡献给了艺术。他早期画作爱用荷兰传画的褐色调，但他天性中火一般的热情使他抛弃荷兰画派的暗淡和沉寂，并迅速远离印象派———印象派对外部世界瞬间真实性的追求和他充满主体意识的精神状态相去甚远。他不是以线条而是以环境来抓住对象；他重新改变现实，以达到实实在在的真实，促成了表现主义的诞生。
) B6 f6 o! H5 Z0 Q
8. Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign of nonviolent civil resistance to British rule of India led to India’s independence in 1947. A member of the merchant caste, Mohandas K. Gandhi, later called Mahatma (Sanskrit for “great soul”), studied law in London. As a lawyer, and later as a political activist, he effectively fought discrimination with his principles of truth, nonviolence, and courage.
: ]5 K# P5 @& z: @, H ^+ B
Gandhi became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. His union with his wife became, as he himself stated, that of brother and sister. Refusing earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth and shawl of the lowliest Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk. Indians revered him as a saint and began to call him Mahatma (Sanskrit, “great soul”), a title reserved for the greatest sages. Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence, known as ahimsa (Sanskrit, “noninjury”), was the expression of a way of life implicit in the Hindu religion. By the Indian practice of nonviolence, Gandhi held, Britain too would eventually consider violence useless and would leave India.
2 ]; }; I4 I8 i2 M
, N1 A I8 J4 Y3 O7 ~3 ~Gandhi's death was regarded as an international catastrophe. His place in humanity was measured not in terms of the 20th century but in terms of history. A period of mourning was set aside in the United Nations General Assembly, and condolences to India were expressed by all countries. Religious violence soon waned in India and Pakistan, and the teachings of Gandhi came to inspire nonviolent movements elsewhere, notably in the U.S. under the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
4 F+ F6 A4 O5 C; H, o' f6 y3 c' I+ }0 z6 S
9. King, Martin Luther, Jr. (1929-1968), American clergyman and Nobel Prize winner, one of the principal leaders of the American civil rights movement and a prominent advocate of nonviolent protest. King’s challenges to segregation and racial discrimination in the 1950s and 1960s helped convince many white Americans to support the cause of civil rights in the United States. After his assassination in 1968, King became a symbol of protest in the struggle for racial justice.
) l6 o3 [& c) ?8 T" pThroughout his career he pressed for equal treatment and improved circumstances for blacks, organizing nonviolent protests and delivering powerful speeches on the necessity of eradicating institutional racial inequalities. In 1963 King led a peaceful march between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, where he delivered his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream.”
" S: T: H! I9 z8 |+ v* f+ N
$ C4 j' ^4 d6 c g% F- U10. Electricity: American scientist Benjamin Franklin theorized that electricity is a kind of fluid. According to Franklin’s theory, when two objects are rubbed together, electric fluid flows from one object to the other. The object that gains electric fluid acquires a vitreous charge, which Franklin called positive charge. The object that loses electric fluid acquires a resinous charge, which Franklin called negative charge.
' E, y, n! H9 x0 Q2 G' E8 Z
$ y/ {6 S& A3 H7 t
Franklin demonstrated that lightning is a form of electricity. In 1752 he constructed a kite and flew it during a storm. When the string became wet enough to conduct, Franklin, who stood under a shed and held the string by a dry silk cord, put his hand near a metal key attached to the string. A spark jumped. Electric charge gathered by the kite had flowed down the wet string to the key and then jumped across an air gap to flow to the ground through Franklin’s body. Franklin also showed that a Leyden jar, a device able to store electric charge, could be charged by touching it to the key when electric current was flowing down the string.
. C9 x' F" \: ~, v1 P
7 p% ~- ^2 l9 |% [; h* X' `8 {! x$ r11. Mass-energy equation: Even more important is the relation between the mass m and energy E. They are coupled by the relation E = mc2, and because c is very large, the energy equivalence of a given mass is enormous. The change of mass giving an energy change is significant in nuclear reactions, as in reactors or nuclear weapons, and in the stars, where a significant loss of mass accompanies the huge energy release.
& f4 z" r+ F+ ~- h8 O0 j) R. l9 J' ~$ u) ]5 L1 |! M; X
12. American aviators Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright of Dayton, Ohio, are considered the fathers of the first successful piloted heavier-than-air flying machine. Through the disciplines of sound scientific research and engineering, the Wright brothers put together the combination of critical characteristics that other designs of the day lacked—a relatively lightweight (337 kg/750 lb), powerful engine; a reliable transmission and efficient propellers; an effective system for controlling the aircraft; and a wing and structure that were both strong and lightweight.
8 i' h! @4 J1 j Q, v2 Z$ |
" Y6 B3 S& D3 s& i% u. R s' S
13. Attack on Pearl Harbor A few minutes before 8 am, on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft initiated a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor. The Japanese hoped to cripple the American fleet, which they perceived as the principal threat to victory in a war against the United States. Within a few hours the Japanese had destroyed four battleships and damaged four more, including the USS Arizona (pictured), destroyed other naval vessels and a large number of combat aircraft, and killed and wounded many American naval and military personnel. As a result of the attack, and at the request of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Congress of the United States declared war on Japan the following day.
/ j8 ?: Y! ^, Z, s3 t1 k; r( ]; k% P% P* ~
14. Near the end of World War II, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It followed with a second bomb against the city of Nagasaki on August 9. According to U.S. estimates, 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed by the Hiroshima bomb, called “Little Boy,” and about 40,000 by the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, called “Fat Man.” Japan agreed to Allied terms of surrender on August 14th. These are the only times that a nuclear weapon has been used in a conflict between nations.
8 S& p1 T: J8 v, u1 a
! l, f% j. I7 V# I' l! T: s; Q
15. Genghis Khan In the late 12th and early 13th centuries, Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan created one of history’s largest land empires, which stretched from the Caspian Sea in Russia to the South China Sea. Genghis Khan succeeded his father as a Mongol chief when still a child, and faced many challenges to his position. He defeated these insurrections, and through his military genius united the nomadic Mongol tribes and turned them into a disciplined fighting force.Culver Pictures.
' @9 T+ {9 X9 ?# S& J, p) x) q. ~$ f
To be intermingled with 混合
% W! s/ k5 {0 n( Y+ ?% G; C% P
7 W" e6 {; K( g. O( Q
16. Roman Empire, political system established by Rome that lasted for nearly five centuries. Historians usually date the beginning of the Roman Empire from 27 bc when the Roman Senate gave Gaius Octavius the name Augustus and he became the undisputed emperor after years of bitter civil war. At its peak the empire included lands throughout the Mediterranean world. Rome had first expanded into other parts of Italy and neighboring territories during the Roman Republic (509-27 bc), but made wider conquests and solidified political control of these lands during the empire. The empire lasted until Germanic invasions, economic decline, and internal unrest in the 4th and 5th centuries ad ended Rome’s ability to dominate such a huge territory. The Romans and their empire gave cultural and political shape to the subsequent history of Europe from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the present day.
* K: l! Q# m4 J) c, b) x
+ ?$ v/ M$ E2 D5 W$ N' i' _& i* n17. Joan of Arc, Saint, in French, Jeanne d'Arc (1412-1431), called the Maid of Orléans, national heroine and patron saint of France, who united the nation at a critical hour and decisively turned the Hundred Years' War in France's favor.
4 Z4 E; A) Y$ b3 y8 i1 l
; J# Q; [$ \1 o; k6 ^- ?Joan was born of peasant parentage in Domrémy (now Domrémy-la-Pucelle). When she was 13 years old, she believed she heard celestial voices. As they continued, sometimes accompanied by visions, she became convinced that they belonged to St. Michael and to the early martyrs St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret. Early in 1429, during the Hundred Years' War, when the English were about to capture Orléans, the “voices” exhorted her to help the Dauphin, later Charles VII, king of France. Charles, because of both internal strife and the English claim to the throne of France, had not yet been crowned king. Joan succeeded in convincing him that she had a divine mission to save France. A board of theologians approved her claims, and she was given troops to command. Dressed in armor and carrying a white banner that represented God blessing the French royal emblem, the fleur-de-lis, she led the French to a decisive victory over the English. At the subsequent coronation of the Dauphin in the cathedral at Reims, she was given the place of honor beside the king.
1 }& E+ |. z/ _' M- b
8 }4 a6 l& M% f6 W
Although Joan had united the French behind Charles and had put an end to English dreams of hegemony over France, Charles opposed any further campaigns against the English. Therefore, it was without royal support that Joan conducted (1430) a military operation against the English at Compiègne, near Paris. She was captured by Burgundian soldiers, who sold her to their English allies. The English then turned her over to an ecclesiastical court at Rouen to be tried for heresy and sorcery. After 14 months of interrogation, she was accused of wrongdoing in wearing masculine dress and of heresy for believing she was directly responsible to God rather than to the Roman Catholic church. The court condemned her to death, but she penitently confessed her errors, and the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Because she resumed masculine dress after returning to jail, she was condemned again—this time by a secular court—and, on May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake in the Old Market Square at Rouen as a relapsed heretic.
: I% H4 g; y4 s: q. o
6 U$ f. L) |, F, ^- ]4 E. d18. In 1996 IBM challenged Garry Kasparov, the reigning world chess champion, to a chess match with a supercomputer called Deep Blue. The computer had the ability to compute more than 100 million chess positions per second. In a 1997 rematch Deep Blue defeated Kasparov, becoming the first computer to win a match against a reigning world chess champion with regulation time controls. Many experts predict these types of parallel processing machines will soon surpass human chess playing ability, and some speculate that massive calculating power will one day replace intelligence. Deep Blue serves as a prototype for future computers that will be required to solve complex problems. At issue, however, is whether a computer can be developed with the ability to learn to solve problems on its own, rather than one programmed to solve a specific set of tasks.
6 c4 x* Z3 T5 m h/ T Computers will become more advanced and they will also become easier to use. Improved speech recognition will make the operation of a computer easier. Virtual reality, the technology of interacting with a computer using all of the human senses, will also contribute to better human and computer interfaces. Standards for virtual-reality program languages—for example, Virtual Reality Modeling language (VRML)—are currently in use or are being developed for the World Wide Web.
( F2 S7 B, [% y, f. s% [; l# x" H' ^- }& M) s7 t
19. X rays were discovered accidentally in 1895 by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen while he was studying cathode rays 阴极射线in a high-voltage高电压, gaseous-discharge tube. Despite the fact that the tube was encased in a black cardboard box, Roentgen noticed that a barium-platinocyanide screen, inadvertently lying nearby, emitted fluorescent light whenever the tube was in operation. After conducting further experiments, he determined that the fluorescence was caused by invisible radiation of a more penetrating nature than ultraviolet rays (see Luminescence; Ultraviolet Radiation). He named the invisible radiation “X ray” because of its unknown nature. Subsequently, X rays were known also as Roentgen rays in his honor.
/ j7 x X$ W, t/ z3 p* ^6 l3 @) d' J
7 B1 w$ C- A2 N20. Beat Generation, group of American writers of the 1950s whose writing expressed profound dissatisfaction with contemporary American society and endorsed an alternative set of values. The term sometimes is used to refer to those who embraced the ideas of these writers. The Beat Generation's best-known figures were writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who met as students at Columbia University in the 1940s, and San Francisco-based poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Bookstore, in the North Beach section of San Francisco, became a center of Beat culture and remained an enduring symbol of alternative literature into the 1990s. Another center of Beat activity was New York City’s East Village, where Ginsberg made his home.
4 {8 f- E% Q4 S6 h1 y2 bThe term Beat Generation was first used by Kerouac in the late 1940s. The word beat had various connotations for the writers, including despair over the beaten state of the individual in mass society and belief in the beatitude, or blessedness, of the natural world and in the restorative powers of the beat of jazz music and poetry. Beat writing generally called for a renunciation of material goods and acquisitiveness in favor of a rediscovery of the erotic, artistic, and spiritual self through the use of drugs, casual sex, music, and the mysticism of Zen Buddhism. The term beatnik was coined in the late 1950s to refer, often disparagingly, to people who embraced the ideas and attitudes of the Beat writers.
) o$ _ N/ b9 _ ^/ U
9 z( W: B1 L0 p/ z7 d& w$ E+ b21. The third principle of American democracy is the system of checks and balances. The three branches of government—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial—restrain and stabilize one another through their separated functions. The legislative branch, represented by Congress, must pass bills before they can become law. The executive branch—namely, the president—can veto bills passed by Congress, thus preventing them from becoming law. In turn, by a two-thirds vote, Congress can override the president’s veto. The Supreme Court may invalidate acts of Congress by declaring them contrary to the Constitution of the United States, but Congress can change the Constitution through the amendment process.
# S( e% D4 w, C3 ]
" I; o4 X! y8 u22．Russian Revolutions of 1917, two revolutions that occurred in Russia in 1917. The first revolution, in February, overthrew the Russian monarchy. The second revolution, in October, created the world’s first Communist state.
# a5 I9 }" \7 K. v& V7 G% |
Soviet Union after the Revolution: The once vibrant working-class movement that had spearheaded the revolution evaporated. Many experienced activists went into the new Soviet government or into the Red Army, and many others perished through war and disease. In the disintegrating economy, many workers left the factories and even the cities. This reduction in the numbers of workers, together with government efforts to maintain order, resulted in the decline of the factory committees and a substantial loss of independence on the part of the trade unions. With the evaporation of multiparty politics, the soviets became a reflection and finally a rubber stamp of the only political grouping that was allowed to function, the Communists. While claiming to defend the interests of the workers and peasants, the new government increasingly found itself quelling peasant rebellions and workers’ strikes, many of which were instigated by Mensheviks and SRs. Especially dramatic was the violent repression in 1921 of an uprising by sailors calling for the restoration of soviet democracy at the Kronshtadt naval base (previously a Bolshevik stronghold) outside of Petrograd (see Kronshtadt Rebellion).
0 ~3 w( X& H% @* aIndividuality and Conformity
: ^- Q' u2 _7 l! B7 v* h
Take Euripides (485? ~ 406 BC), for example, he said, "No man on earth is truly free. All are slaves of money or necessity. Public opinion or fear of prosecution forces each one, against his conscience, to conform." What Euripides was writing about is today's topic, which is individuality versus conformity. Is it true, as he says, that we are not free to be ourselves because we are constrained by the times and culture we live in? True, we have to work, but aren't we free to love our jobs? Yes, society insists that we behave in a particular manner, but aren't we free to choose to conform when it is in our best interest to do so?
( I' D( |; A6 y f. E) OThe truth is individuality and conformity are merely different sides of the same coin. We cannot have one without the other. We cannot have conformity unless there are individuals to conform. And we cannot have individuality unless there is conformity to break free of. Although conformity can be interpreted as a loss of freedom, without it society would be reduced to chaos. Look at present-day Iraq. Citizens are pleading with the coalition forces to restore law and order. They are begging to be restrained by laws, for once they are, they will be FREE to wander in the streets without fear.
# a4 d- Z+ c- KAre you fed up with the many laws and rules you have to put up with? At times, you have a right to be, for the laws may well need changing. However, many times our dissatisfaction with the demands of society is because we have forgotten the benefits of conformity. Whenever we join a group, we share in the benefits, advantages, and power. And conformity is the price we pay to gain admission to that group. How can I have one without the other?
/ }* J" O; x" m+ e* _3 qImagine how the lives of Jews and Palestinians will improve when they agree to live in peace, harmony, and cooperation. By conforming to mutual expectations, they can transform a living hell to an earthly paradise. Such is the power and freedom we can gain by conforming to the greater good. When we learn to do so because of our concern for the rights of others, we grow in spiritual awareness and help to make the world a better place.
- Z, r. ?- Y3 K5 j; O: ?% V$ HWhat should the goal of our lives be other than being ourselves? Although we were all born equal, we were all born different. Although we all share the same fears, feelings, and fancies, we express them differently. Although there may be little difference between one person and another, that little difference is VERY important. For as Hermann Hesse (1877 ~ 1895) wrote, "Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again." So, to relinquish our identity by following the crowd is to deny the world of our potentially unique contribution.
* H# U% g2 e! n/ j# EAnd how must we express our uniqueness? Isn't it by conforming to our conscience, conforming to our higher selves, conforming to the person we wish to become, conforming to our dreams, and conforming to our principles? How can we become better than we are until we first become what we are? The key to a successful life is always one of balance. It is no different here. We need to balance conformity with individuality. Both are necessary.
/ y( W {1 F- r# LA word of warning: we have been socialized to conform to the wishes of authority figures. Too often we act out of habit. Yes, we need to cooperate and conform whenever it is fitting, but we need to question as well. Failure to question unscrupulous business accounting practices led to many people in the U.S. losing their retirement plans. Failure to question the government led to the loss of 58,000 American lives and perhaps 1,750,000 Vietnamese in the Vietnam War. Regardless of the authority figure, we need to question it. Ferdinand Magellan (1480 ~ 1521) did so when he wrote, "The church says the earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the Church." Yes, we need to conform, but not at the price of abandoning reason and common sense.
7 p) W9 {+ e2 hNot only do we need to question others, we need to question our own actions. Are we living with integrity and practicing individuality by being true to ourselves? If we stop and question ourselves, we may be surprised by the answer. When Emile Henry Gauvreau (1891 ~ 1956) stopped and questioned himself, he discovered, "I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest to make money they don't want to buy things they don't need to impress people they dislike." Don't let that happen to you.
6 C7 l9 S* y0 p9 l3 XWhen you dare to be different, expect to be assailed. You may be labeled a misfit. But why worry about what others think, when as soon as you leave their company, they'll stop thinking about you anyway? Besides, it is as Mignon Mclaughlin (b. 1915) said, "Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers." We owe all progress, discoveries, and breakthroughs to those few men and women who had the courage to be different. Their differences made all the difference to the world. Our responsibility is no less than to follow their example.
. i' {. d$ v7 p1 rAlso part of our responsibility is to educate our children properly. When doing so, keep in mind the words of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 ~ 1900): "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." I'll end with another Nietzsche quote, "You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." So, dare to be yourself!
