潘嘉贝 上海外国语大学附属外国语学校 高一 阅读书目：奥林匹克 The Olympics（DK英汉对照百科读物）
The Olympic Games, which originated in ancient Greece, is the most distinguished sporting event in the world. Once every four years, the utmost athletes from all around are lured to gather together and spare no efforts to compete against each other and try to win a medal for the country that they represent. Frankly speaking, that was virtually all I knew about the world-famous Olympic Games before I had read a book entitled The Olympics published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. However, I found even more philosophy beyond just winning medals from reading the book, which was beyond my imagination and considerably inspiring.
Someone once said, “Were everybody on earth involved in some kind of sport, our world would be free of war for long.” Starting from three thousand years ago, the ancient Olympic Games has long been an event not only for competition but also for peace. In ancient times, no war was allowed between the cities during the Games, which was rather surprising to me since I could hardly imagine warriors actally putting down their weapons and give a break for peace. The precious tradition of peace continued: I would never fail to recall the scene of the opening ceremonies when North and South Korean athletes entering the stadium with their hands held together. The two neighboring countries that used to be enemies are no longer enemies during the Games. Instead they became friends. Speaking of the 2004 Athens Olympics, perhaps most people would have the same opinion that the most noable part of the opening ceremony arrived when Iraqi and Afghan representatives showed up. These two unfortunate nations, the people of which have undergone innumerable wars, are coming back again to take their own responsibility in world sports after recent invasions by America. The fearless people of Iraq and Afghanistan are once more sharing the spirit of the Games with people from the rest of the world.
There is another story in this book that makes me deep in thoughts. There is no doubt that the most unusual Olympic Games ever in history is the 1936 Olympics held in Germany, which was then ruled by the Nazi Party. Led by Adolf Hitler, the Nazi believed that the so-called Aryan people were superior to all others in all aspects. They looked down upon Jews and blacks, the latter of which was a major constitution of the United States Olympic team. Despite the barrier that faced him, the African American Jesse Owens, who was a most outstanding runner and jumper, did all that he could and finally won gold medals for his country and went home a hero. This reveals another fact that no power on earth is able to hinder the sacred Olympic Games. For all participants, no matter what their gender, race, nationalities and backgrounds are, equality is distributed among every one who observes the Game’s rules.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics, our Chinese team did extraordinarily well. We ranked second on the medal lists for the first time in history. In my opinion, however, we should not only concentrate on the figure of medals; instead the strength and perseverance of those who failed to get any medals ought to be highly cherished. Whether ever success or failure, whether ever cheer or tear, whether ever medal or not, the never-gave-up spirits of athletes are always motivating us. I believe in the year 2008, the world will focus all their attention to Beijing, China, where the glory of the Games will continue to thrive forever!
英文读后感-To Be Or Not To Be, That Is the Question
To Be Or Not To Be, That Is the Question—— My view on reading The Star Zoo
段 旭 北京市丰台区长辛店北京十中高三 阅读书目：星际动物园 The Star Zoo （书虫· 牛津英汉双语读物）
As the only living things on a bare planet called “Just Like Home”, humans felt lonely and sad. In order to live, they must get married as often as possible and have children. Unwilling to get married, our 16-year-old protagonist named Humming Bird ran away from her planet and found a plastic space ship. There she met various kinds of animals, which frightened her even drove her crazy. She had never seen such things before. Only through ‘The Book Of Remembering’ did she get some rough idea of animals. After she took a small-copied cat home and showed it to the officials on her planet, the cat was shot to death and all the officials went crazy. Humming Brid didn’t give up her attempt to let people accept the animals. She decided to set about the job from children…
That’s the brief plot of Harry Gilbert’s science fiction—<The Star Zoo>. Based on the reality of increasing environmental problems, the writer uses his full imagination and creativity to produce this vivid imaginative and thought-provoking story.
As far as we know, animal numbers are now diminishing all over the world every years, and the living conditions we depend on a getting worse. We dirty the air with gases and smoke, poison the water with chemicals and other substances and damage the soil with too many fertilizers and pesticides. We also pollute our surroundings in many other ways. Air, water and soil are all very important and necessary to the survival of all living things all over the world. If we human don’t pay more attention to that, there will come a day when we have to live the kind of life described in this novel. As we know, the world is made up not only of human beings but also a lot of other living things. If we don’t want to leave this perfect planet, we have to protect the environment; otherwise, without the company of other living things, people would only be half-alive, men only half-men.
Nowadays, I should say, people have realized the importance of environmental protection and ecological balance. Slogans that remind us to save water and electricity are stuck everywhere, but how many are treated as requirements or duties and not just a piece of paper. If we pay a little attention to our working and study places, we always find some taps half opened with running water, and large numbers of people get used to leave lights on during the day. Dustbins for both recycled and unredeemable rubbish are placed in high density but no one bothers to throw the rubbish into the right dustbins. Nor do they even know what kind of rubbish could be recycled and what kind could not.
Conservation centers for protecting animals are built in many countries. Our government also passed some acts to protect animals; however, there do exist some law-breakers who are driven by money. We plant trees very year, but no one bothers to water and care for them after planting them. For money, some farmers drive their sheep and cattle to grasslands and charge it into desert.
All in all, to every one, I want to say, “Living on this wonderful planet earth, we are lucky and happy. In order to enjoy this kind of wonderful life, we must care for mother earth and put this kind of care into practice.”
Facing the world, to be or not to be, it’s up to you. We must make a choice without any hesitation!
英文读后感-The Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle
张沛竹 北京市海淀区育英中学高二（八）班阅读书目：百慕大三角 The Bermuda Triangle （DK英汉对照百科读物）
After reading The Bermuda Triangle, I became very curious about the Bermuda Triangle area. Why did the Flight 19 disappear? Why did clouds in the sky suddenly turn yellow?
From the book I knew that in the Bermuda Triangle area, the compasses and other instruments stop working. If it is true, that will be terrible. We can’t work out which direction we are going to. The main part of the Triangle lies between southern Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, but odd things also happened in the Sargasso Sea and all the way south to Barbados.
Up till now, many strange things have happened in this area. There are four major types of odd things that people can not explain. The first is about the yellow cloud in the sky. Some pilots and ships’ captains reported that they saw a yellow fog in the Bermuda Triangle. When they approached the area, the sky suddenly turned yellow, the sea and the sky seemed to join together. As a result, they could not tell where they were, or in what direction they were heading.
The second odd thing is the missing of ships, planes and sailors. Ever since old times, reports have been accumulated about missing sailing ships and sailors. In modern times, planes and pilots also got lost. Over 1,500 people have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle area in the past 50 years.
The third strange thing is that in this area compasses and other instruments stop working. Even the satellite connection is gone.
The last strange thing is that people see strange lights and unidentified ships in this area. And more UFOs are reported in this area than in any other parts of the world.
Many modern reports about the Bermuda Triangle show that a strange yellow fog frequently emerges above the sea. In 1966, a tug called the Good News was going to Fort Lauderdale from Puerto Rico. She was pulling a cargo barge behind her on the end of a strong line. The Good News was a very powerful ship. However, when she got to the are a of her mid-voyage between Puerto Rico and Port Lauderdale, the instruments on the ship suddenly went mad. Most of them stopped working. The compass ran around and around crazily. When the sailors looked out, they found a yellow fog covering the barge. At the end of the line, the sea and sky seemed to join together. Captain Henry and his crew tried their best and finally the ship’s engines were turned to full power, and the cargo barge came out the fog.
After consulting many books, I found that the tale of yellow fog has been of a current basis. People did not mention that fog in the past. I personally perceive that the yellow fog is a natural phenomenon of modern times. The sea area between Puerto Rico and Port Lauderdale has been heavily polluted in the past several decades. Large quantity of hydrochloric acid water has been thrown into the sea. Chemical analyses show that hydrochloric acid is one of the principal pollutants in the water. Still more data indicate that manganese nucleus has been found among the mineral deposits in the seabed of this area. Beneath the surface of the seawater grows a red plant called sargassum. This plant can produce oxygen. When manganese joins the oxygen, they become manganese dioxide (MnO2), which in turn interacts with the hhydrochloric acid contained in the water. When the heating condition is satisfied, a yellow gas of chlorine will be generated. As the following formula shows:
Thus, the yellow fog around the cargo is most probably the chloric gas. As for the heaviness felt by the tug, I think we need to take the nervousness of the sailors into consideration. So my claim is that the strange yellow fog is not a wicked stranger of any kind, but a Frankenstein of our own.
I am also curious about the experience of Catalina. Catalina is a flying boat. On June 11, 1986, she was on her way to Jacksonville. When Martin Caidin and his friends were enjoying their flying, they found that the clear sky was suddenly full of cloud. Soon they were trapped in the cloud and all the instruments on the plane stopped working. When they were flying blindly, Cardin found a small hole in front of the cockpit. The hole went down through the cloud all the way to the ocean. They soon discovered that they were flying at the same speed with the small hole, so they grasped the chance and flew within the sight of the small piece of blue sea. After struggling for a couple of hours, suddenly they found themselves flying in a clear blue sky again. They were safe and sound now.
In my opinion, the yellow cloud they encountered and the small hole of blue sea must be a waterspout. The Bermuda Triangle area is also known for its unusual weather. Sudden storms are common and some weather conditions can produce waterspout. As we know, most waterspouts have a hole in the middle which is known as the “eye of waterspout”. This “eye” is in fact a small area where air in enclosed by the circling clouds moving in very quick speed. If the objects pulled up by the quick wind can manage to fly at the same speed with this “eye”, they may fortunately get through the waterspout without being destroyed. Cardin and his friends were those lucky ones who were caught in the middle of the “eye” and their well-equipped plane enabled them to fly at the same speed with it. Thanks to their plane and their good luck, they survived the waterspout and finally got to safety.
The strange phenomena in the Bermuda Triangle area tell us that human beings are only one part of the nature. Through the long history of development, men got to know more and more about the world we are living in. However, there are still more natural phenomena we do not know. Whilst we try to ask the nature to give us more, we need to pay close attention to what we have done to the nature. And to know this world and the universe our planet belongs to, we human beings still have a long way to go.
From:https://www.330011.com/Article/dhq/201212/1702.html