时间:2019-01-07 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2008年(九月)


英语课
Over the course of American history, several religious sects 2 and utopian societies have flowered, only to fade away. But out in the country in 28 U.S. states, a group that is deliberately 3 living in a 19th-century time warp 4 is prospering 5. The Amish drive horse-drawn buggies, plow 6 with draft horses rather than motorized tractors, and speak a form of German among themselves. They allow no electricity into their homes or workplaces, not because it represents modernity but because it would tie them to the outside world that the Amish wish to avoid.
 






At an Amish lumber 7 mill, where saws and pulleys are run by gasoline generators 8 rather than electricity, even sawdust is conserved 9 for use in making fiberboard



Married Amishmen wear beards and straw hats. Women wrap their hair tightly into buns beneath prayer coverings. Amish work – farming, weaving, furniture-making – is long and hard.
 






These quilts are designed as one of the Amish's few home decorations - wall hangings, not to warm a bed. They are sold in local shops and are quite expensive




Amish typically have five or more children. They build more and more wings onto their farmhouses 10 to accommodate new generations and aging adults. Given a free and open chance to leave the sect 1, four of five Amish young adults elect to stay.

All of which helps explain the following:

According to researchers at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania – a region where gawking at the Amish has become a popular tourist activity – there are more than 225,000 Amish nationwide – almost twice as many as there were in 1992. In that time, Amish have moved into 16 new states as far west as Colorado.
 






Amish buggies keep to the far, far right on rural roads to allow automobiles 11 to pass. Local buggy and blacksmith shops are tourist attractions




The Amish, who came to America from the Alsace region of France in the early 1700s in search of religious tolerance 12, do not live in communes. Their handsome farms are spread among their non-Amish neighbors. There are no Amish churches or religious icons 13 other than the Christian 14 Bible, and no special creed 15 other than Christ's example of living simply and humbly 16 and helping 17 others.

The Amish made headlines two years ago by forgiving and embracing the widow of a homicidal milkman who killed five Pennsylvania Amish girls.

Living without telephones or computers, or even electricity, the Amish happily allow the Information Age to pass them by. Questioned about their apparent backward ways, they ask their neighbors, Where has progress gotten you? Are you happier? More fulfilled? More loved?



n.派别,宗教,学派,派系
  • When he was sixteen he joined a religious sect.他16岁的时候加入了一个宗教教派。
  • Each religious sect in the town had its own church.该城每一个宗教教派都有自己的教堂。
n.宗派,教派( sect的名词复数 )
  • Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He had subdued the religious sects, cleaned up Saigon. 他压服了宗教派别,刷新了西贡的面貌。 来自辞典例句
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地
  • The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
  • They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。
vt.弄歪,使翘曲,使不正常,歪曲,使有偏见
  • The damp wood began to warp.这块潮湿的木材有些翘曲了。
  • A steel girder may warp in a fire.钢梁遇火会变弯。
成功,兴旺( prosper的现在分词 )
  • Our country is thriving and prospering day by day. 祖国日益繁荣昌盛。
  • His business is prospering. 他生意兴隆。
n.犁,耕地,犁过的地;v.犁,费力地前进[英]plough
  • At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
  • We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后,我们将马上耕田。
n.木材,木料;v.以破旧东西堆满;伐木;笨重移动
  • The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
  • They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。
n.发电机,发生器( generator的名词复数 );电力公司
  • The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
  • Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》
v.保护,保藏,保存( conserve的过去式和过去分词 )
  • He conserved his energy for the game. 他为比赛而养精蓄锐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Under these conditions, the total mechanical energy remains constant, or is conserved. 在这种条件下,总机械能保持不变或机械能保存。 来自辞典例句
n.农舍,农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 )
  • Then perhaps she is staying at one of cottages or farmhouses? 那么也许她现在住在某个农舍或哪个农场的房子里吧? 来自辞典例句
  • The countryside was sprinkled with farmhouses. 乡间到处可见农家的房舍。 来自辞典例句
n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )
  • When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后,就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上,汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
n.宽容;容忍,忍受;耐药力;公差
  • Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
  • Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。
n.偶像( icon的名词复数 );(计算机屏幕上表示命令、程序的)符号,图像
  • Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons. 用图标来区分重要的文本项。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
  • Daemonic icons should only be employed persistently if they provide continuous, useful status information. 只有会连续地提供有用状态信息的情况下,后台应用程序才应该一直使用图标。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒
  • They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
  • His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。
n.信条;信念,纲领
  • They offended against every article of his creed.他们触犯了他的每一条戒律。
  • Our creed has always been that business is business.我们的信条一直是公私分明。
adv. 恭顺地,谦卑地
  • We humbly beg Your Majesty to show mercy. 我们恳请陛下发发慈悲。
  • "You must be right, Sir,'said John humbly. “你一定是对的,先生,”约翰恭顺地说道。
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
学英语单词
a. pharyngica ascendens
agistator
agomensin
Astrapialith
backward signaling path
barium soap base grease
basic line of sight
behinded
blubbering
bosses about
calorized coating
catch a crab
Chadan
chenodeoxycholicacid
chromosome repeat
clamping surface
clearing house settlement sheet
close agreement
colour revolutions
combined weighing and mixing machine
complete combustibility
conditional breakpoint instruction
conformabilities
consensual purchase decision
continuously computed release point
cylinder-mould
demonstrative determiners
Dierama
digimatic osmometer
dipyridamole
dirty sand
disinformation
eccentric lathe
elastic axle
ferromycin
floppy disc formatting
folk psychiatry
Foraky freezing process
foreground-background environment
frozen
geographical race
hill belt
hyperbola of higher order
ice divide
indemnify sb. from damage
indijudicable
inner colded
internal acquisition team
isorefractive mixture
jet efflux
joint of head of rib
Jueyinshu
leather measuring machine
liquid laughs
mccran
merril
metoceans
mustarding
nature rights
non-anonymous
peak point
peltigera praetextata subglabra
philoponella nigromaculata
pioupiou
procedure reference
protected record
proton-proton
puccinia arthraxonis
pump control system
pyridinylpiperazines
quickens
reactor time constant
review questions
Rifaina
rostovs on don
scapholunars
sea trumpet
secretoneurin
selfexcited generator
semiautonomy
semipermanent depression
settle the claim
shanks's pony
sheetful
single space mean
sliding gate pump
social-minimum
spectrum, band
spring suspended movable stripper
stockant
structure of imports and exports
synchronization sequence
thaw compression test
the sharp end
Tiepolo
track chargeman
transformational implementation
trobriander
Vran Planina
whiteish
wilsheres
zamouses