苏海涛 湖北省当阳市当阳一中高二阅读书目：探索太空 Exploring Space （国家地理科学探索丛书）
Looking at dark sky at night for a while, you may see a red star. It has dazzling color. People call it “Mars”.
In the solar system, beyond the third planet, the fourth one is “Mars”. It is a planet which is far away from Earth, about 2 hundred million kilometers on average. It is so charming that many scientists and people want to go there. Yes, distance lends enchantment to the view.
Exploring space is not as easy as you might think. It is beyond your imagination. Scientists still make great contributions to exploring space and they also get good results. Space exploration is developing successfully. Scientists have made great progress with this project in only a few years’ time.
In the past fifty years, people have launched many detectors into the unknown universe and planets. However, most of them ended with failure. These detectors still helped the scientists and people to know more about this science. The first time they launched the detectors to Mars was in 1960s. From then on, two super countries, America and the Soviet Union, started a competition to explore Mars. They never stopped launching detectors to Mars. Even if two thirds of them failed. However, it didn’t stop us from exploring space.
Distance should not be an obstacle to exploring space. At the beginning of 2004. NASA Launched two detectors to Mars, and both of them landed safty. They sent many useful information to Earth. It was really exciting news! Before that, a detector launched by Europe was lost in Universe. It was a shock to the scientific community, but they will never give up.
As a matter of fact, the purpose of launching so many detectors to space is to find a planet with life and the basic element – water.
The moon is far away from Earth, but it is the nearest star to Earth. People have been fascinated by the moon since ancient times until 1969 when astronauts from America landed on the moon. They found that the moon was just a satellite, without water, air, atmosphere and life, so people’s fantasies about moon were broken. The moon is a real “Wide-cold Palace”, it also has very bad weather, extremely cold at night and extremely hot during daytime. Nothing can subsist on the moon. When the astronauts landed on the moon, it was as if the distance went from 380 thousand kilometers to zero kilometers. All the beautiful fantasies and legends about moon were broken, so people now aim their eyes on Mars. They hope that one day the astronauts can step on Mars and realize our new dream.
Since we know the truth of moon, it is not so tempting to us. But poems about the moon can still give us some yearning.
Compare the beginnings of space travel with exploring space today. The exploration of space today is more useful. Many people are fond of Mars because among the nine planets in the solar system it is the most similar to Earth, so we call them “Brother Planets”. On Mars, there is a thin atmosphere lay and some oxygen. The detectors have found that there once exisited water. Due to the low gravity, the water all ran into space. The exploration of space is not only helping us know more about the unknown space, but also telling us a way to the new science and possibly a homeland. In other words, people may realize the dream of living on another planets.
Even though we knew moon well now, it has many touching legends n ancient times. Chang’e is a beauty who ate the elixir and then flew to the moon, she lived in the “Wide-Cold Palace” (Moon Palce) with a jade rabbit. Wugang always cut down the sweet-scented osmanthus trees on moon as a punishment. Though these legends are not true, we can still store them in our memories.
Why do we care so much about other planets? The reason is that the Earth is suffering many troubles. These troubles include: global warming, air pollution, water pollution, the population is quickly increasing, soil deterioration and decreasing natural resoures. The environment is not as good as it once was. All the troubles mentioned above are warnings us that we should pay more attention to the environment, and take care of our mother-Earth. Don’t make it suffer any more troubles. The reason is simple, we have only one Earth. Why not cherish it and make it more beautiful.
Even Mars is the most similar to the Earth in the solar system, scientists have said that outer-space is not fit for human beings to live in at the moment. Because there is not enough of the necessary thing that we need in space. We can’t find the basic thing-water. On other planets, so we should assume the attitude, “looking for a horse while riding a donkey, but not looking for a horse while discarding a donkey.” Only remember that we have one Earth. It is our duty to protect and cherish it.
In 1990, NASA launched a telescope called “Hubble” to the orbit of Earth. Without the affect of atmosphere, we can see the stars far away about 200 hundred million light-years. It is the farthest area we can see so far in the universe. People learnt a lot with the telescope, and NASA plans to launch a new telescope to space to take the place of “Hubble”. It is more modern. We can see longer distance with it. We hope that one day we can know all the secrets about the universe.
October 26th, 2003, in China, the “Divin Land 5” was launched to space successfully and after 21 hours it landed safty. It proved that we have the ability to conquer space. Now scientists in China have started a project to explore the moon. Soon detectors have been launched. We hope a good result. The Chinese scientists plant to launch “Divin land 6” to space next year. We hope that day can come soon.
Now, we have full confidence in ourselves. However, before we explore space, we should take care of our only homeland, Earth. So that we have the right conditions to explore space and have a good result.
What will human being’s future like? No one knows. Please remember to cherish everything we own now. Don’t be regretful for the past! Looking back at the history, and looking into the future, so we can dominate our destiny.
Distance lends enchantment to the view! All my friends, let’s make our world more beautiful!
英文读后感-Marry Money or Marry the One You Love
Marry Money or Marry the One You Love
孙 屹 上海中学高二（5）班 阅读书目：傲慢与偏见 Pride and Prejudice （书虫· 牛津英汉双语读物）
Many people simply regard Pride and Prejudice as a love story, but in my opinion, this book is an illustration of the society at that time. She perfectly reflected the relation between money and marriage at her time and gave the people in her works vivid characters.
The characters have their own personalities. Mrs. Bennet is a woman who makes great efforts to marry off her daughters. Mr. Bingley is a friendly young man, but his friend, Mr. Darcy, is a very proud man who seems to always feel superior. Even the five daughters in Bennet family are very different. Jane is simple, innocent and never speaks evil of others. Elizabeth is a clever girl who always has her own opinion. Mary likes reading classic books. (Actually she is a pedant.) Kitty doesn’t have her own opinion but likes to follow her sister, Lydia. Lydia is a girl who follows exotic things, handsome man, and is somehow a little profligate. When I read the book, I can always find the same personalities in the society now. That is why I think this book is indeed the representative of the society in Britain in the 18th century.
The family of gentleman in the countryside is Jane Austen’s favourite topic. But this little topic can reflect big problems. It concludes the stratum situation and economic relationships in Britain in her century. You can find these from the very beginning of this book.
The first sentence in this book is impressive. It reads: “It is a truth well known to all the world that an unmarried man in possession of a large fortune must be in need of a wife”. The undertone is very clear: the foundation of the marriage at that time is not emotion but possession.
People always think that Austen was an expert at telling love stories. In fact, the marriage in her book is not the result of love, but the result of economic needs. After reading this book, I know the truth is that a poor woman must be in need of a husband, a wealthy man.
I couldn’t forget how eager Mrs. Bennet wants to marry off her daughters. If you want to know why she is so crazy about these things, I must mention the situation in Britain at that time. Only the eldest son had the privilege of inheriting his father’s possessions. Younger sons and daughters who are used to luxurious lives have no choice but marry a man or woman in possession of a large fortune to continue their comfortable lives. Thus, we can see that getting married is a way to become wealthier, particularly for women without many possessions. Jane Austen told us that money and possession determined everything, including marriage and love in her century.
In “Pride and Prejudice”, the sister of Mr. Bingley strongly opposed his plan of marrying Jane because the Bennets don’t have many possessions and their social positions are much lower than them. From this, we can see there are a lot of obstacles for a not very rich woman to marry a wealthy husband. The society, the relatives would not allow them to get married.
In modern society, although the marriages of economic needs have decreased rapidly, the concept of “money determines everything” is still rooted in some people’s mind. A lot of parents try hard to interfere their children’s marriages. Education background, possessions, jobs remains the main reason that may influence one’s marriage. Marry for money is still a big problem in our society. We can’t help thinking: can money determine everything?
Austen left this problem for us to think. The genius of Jane Austen lies in this perfect simplicity, the simplicity that reflects big problems. Although Austen was only 21 when she wrote “Pride and Prejudice”, her sharp observation of social lives makes the style of this book surprisingly mature and lively. The plots in her works are always very natural. The development of the plot is as inevitable as a problem in mathematics. I think the depth of Pride and Prejudice is the reason that makes this book prominent and classic. Today, her book still can be the guide telling us the economic relationships both at her time and in modern time.
英文读后感-Can Human Determine Their Own Destiny?
费昳琼 上海市松江二中高二年级 阅读书目：特洛伊传说 The Story of Troy （DK英汉对照百科读物）
I have never been to Troy, but David Maule made me feel as if I were standing on the high wall of Troy, watching the fierce war. Thanks to this British author, who adapted the famous Homer’s poem into a lively story, I found it easier to understand this story. Though the story happened over 3000 years ago in a remote place, I was deeply fascinated by it.
The mysterious plot is one of the reasons why I loved The Story of Troy so much, yet I am more interested in the human heroes of the war.
Hector was the eldest son of king of Troy, Priam. He was not only a real hero of Trojan, but was regarded the highest moral hero in Greek classic by later historians. The war started because of the mischief of his brother, Paris, whom he didn’t appreciate. However, since Hector was the commander of the Trojan army, he was obliged to fight with all force. It was really a tragedy that such a valiant man died in the duel with another great warrior, Achilles.
It is natural to see death in a war. As a famous Chinese parable says, “A life can be as slight as a piece of feather, or as weighty as Mount Tai.” Sometimes, one’s glory walks hand in hand with one’s doom. Achilles was such a typical person. His personal charm made The Story of Troy more attractive. He was so crucial because his every appearance in a war encouraged his fellow soldiers and terrified the enemies. Actually, Achilles was half-god who was almost invincible in people’s mind. That’s why his name was memorized long after his death.
Besides the two great men, the wisdom of Odysseus also proved him to be a great hero. He didn’t want to attend the war because he was happily married and had a lovely son. However, since his country was allied to Mycenae, he had to take the command given by the king of Mycenae. I’m quite sure that the story of the wooden horse is widely known, however, few people know who thought of the brilliant idea, that’s why I admired Odysseus so much because he was the person who got the idea. Thanks to the horse, the ten-year war came to an end at last. If you want to know how the wooden horse worked, just read the book.
The ancient Greeks believed that the gods and goddesses also played important roles in the origin, process and ending of the whole story.
The story of the golden apple was such an example. When Eris, the goddess of argument and disagreement, threw out the golden apple to a wedding ceremony on Mount Olympus, a dispute happened. Hera, the queen of gods, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, were all involved in the argument for the apple. None of them was willing to give way, so they turned to Paris for a final judgment. Tempted by Aphrodite’s beauty and promise, Paris handed the apple to her. To keep her word, Aphrodite helped him to get Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, as his wife. That was the cause of the war.
Paris’s choice obviously annoyed the other two goddesses. So during the war, they helped the Greek alliance army while some other gods, such as Apollo and Aphrodite, guarded Troy. When Paris dueled with Helen’s former husband Menelaus, Aphrodite saved Paris when he was about to be finished off.
After the duel between those two people, there was a truce between the Greek alliance and Troy. However, both Hera and Athena were not happy to see it. Hera pursued her husband ZEUS:“ Now, will you send Athena to make the Troyjans break the peace?”(Page 22) Then with Zeus’s permission, Athena went down to start the war again and finally she brought the Greeks to success.
From the whole story, we can see that in ancient Greeks’ view, gods sometimes played a much more important role in their life. However, with the rapid development of science, we have learned that the Greek gods never existed. This is why a recent movie of Troy has not mentioned a single god. Everything happened due to men’s ambition, love, loyalty or jealousy. With those emotion and people’s effort, we human beings can accomplish wonders and be master of the world.
God are of less importance than they used to be. Nonetheless, the gods and goddesses made The Story of Troy more mysterious and marvelous.
I have learnt from the book more than the wonderful story of history, love and war. I believe that human can determine their destiny by their own. I highly recommend this book to my friends with the same interest.
From:https://www.330011.com/Article/dhq/201212/1706.html