2008.12.31
30．场景分类训练下-历史类之二第十九篇
I was really glad when your club invited me to share my coin collection. It’s been my passion since I collected my first Lincoln cent in 1971. That’s the current penny with Abraham Lincoln’s image. Just a little history before I started in on my own collection. Lincoln pennies are made of copper, and they were the first United States coin to bear likeness of a president. It was back in 1909 when the country was celebrating the centennial of Lincoln’s birth in 1809 that the decision was made to redesign the one cent piece in his honor. Before that, the penny had an American-Indian head on it. The new penny was designed by artist Victor David Brenner. This is interesting because he put his initials VDB on the reverse of the coin in its original design. There was a general uproar when the initials were discovered. And only a limited number of the coins were struck with the initials on them. Today, a penny with the initials from the San Francisco Mint, called the 1909s VDB, is worth over 500 dollars. Now, when I started my coin collection, I begin with the penny for several reasons. There are a lot of them, several hundred billion have been minted, and there were a lot of people collecting them, so I had plenty of people to trade with and talk to about my collection. Also, it was a coin I could afford to collect as a young teenager. In the twenty five years since then, I have managed to acquire over 300 coins, some of them very rare. I will be sharing with you today some of my rarer specimen, including the 1909s VDB.

Copper [ 'kɔpə ]: a. (紫)铜色的,铜(制)的n. 铜,铜币,铜制品
Bear [ beə(r) ]: n. 熊v. 忍受,负荷v. 结果实,生子女
Likeness [ 'laiknis ]: n. 相像,相似物,样子
Centennial [ sen'tenjəl]: n. 百年纪念a. 一百年的
Reverse[ ri'və:s ]: n. 相反,背面,失败a. 反面的,相反的,颠倒的v. 颠倒,逆转,倒退
Uproar[ 'ʌprɔ: ]: n. 喧嚣,骚动
Struck[ strʌk ]:发出的；罢工；打接；
Mint[ mint ]：n. 薄荷,造币厂,巨额v. 铸造,铸币,伪造
Rare[ rɛə ]: a. 稀罕的,罕见的,珍贵的
Specimen[ 'spesimin]: n. 样本,标本
2008.12.31
31．场景分类训练下-历史类之二第二十篇
One of the most popular myths about the United States in the nineteenth century was that of the free and simple life of the farmer. It was said that farmers worked hard on their own land to produce whatever their families needed. They might sometimes trade with neighbors. But in general, they could get along just fine by relying on themselves not on commercial ties with others. This is how Tomas Jefferson idealized the farmer at the beginning of the nineteenth century. And at that time, this may have been close to the truth, especially on the frontier. But by mid century, sweeping changes in agriculture were well under way, as farmers began to specialize in the raising of crops, such as cotton or corn and wheat. By late in the century, revolutionary advances in farm machinery had vastly increased production of specialized crops. And the extensive network of railroads had linked the farmers throughout the country to markets in the east and even overseas. By raising and selling specialized crops, farmers could afford more and finer goods, and achieve a much higher standard of living-but at the price. Now farmers were no longer dependent just on the weather and their own efforts. Their lives were increasingly controlled by banks, which had power to grant and deny loans for new machinery. And by the railroads, which set the rates for shipping their crops to market. As business man, farmers now had to worry about national economic depressions and the influence of world supply and demand on for example, the price of wheat in Kansas. And so, by the end of the nineteenth century, the era of Jefferson’s independent farmer had come to a close.
Myth[ miθ ]: n. 神话
Frontier[ 'frʌntjə ]: n. 边界,边境
Under way:在进行中
Finer[ 'fainə ]: a. 好的,出色的
Vastly [ 'vɑ:stli ]: ad. 广大地,许多,钜大
At the price: 以……为代价
Rate [ reit ]: n. 比率,等级,价格v. 估价,认为,检定等级
Depression [ di'preʃən ]: n. 沮丧,萧条
Idealize [ ai'diəlaiz ]: v. 使理想化
Sweeping [ 'swi:piŋ ]: n. 扫除,废屑a. 一扫而去的,凶猛的,广泛的vbl. 扫除,打扫
2009.1.1
32．场景分类训练下-历史类之二第二十一篇
Moving away from newspapers, let’s now focus on magazines. Now the first magazine was a little periodical called the review. And it was started in London in 1704. It looked a lot like the newspapers of the time, but in terms of its content, it was much different. Newspapers were concerned mainly with news events, but the review focused on important domestic issues of the day, as well as the policies of the government. Now in England at the time people could still be thrown in jail for publishing articles that were critical of the king. And that’s what happened to Daniel Defoe. He was the outspoken founder of the review. Defoe actually wrote the first issue of the review from prison. You see, he had been arrested because of his writings that criticized the policy of the Church of England, which was headed by the king. After his release, Defoe continued to produce the review, and the magazine started to appear on a more frequent schedule about three times a week. It didn’t take long for other magazines to start popping up. In 1709, a magazine called The Tatler began publication. This new magazine contained a mixture of news, poetry, political analysis and philosophical essays.
Periodical
Jail [ dʒeil ]: n. 监牢,监狱,拘留所v. 监禁,下狱
Outspoken [ aut'spəukən ]: a. 直言无讳的,坦率的,坦白无隐的
Head [ hed ]: n. 头,头脑,领袖v. 为首,朝向,前进
Popping [ 'pɔpiŋ ]: n. 爆音(间歇振荡) a. 凸出的(间歇的)
Critical[ 'kritikəl ]: a. 批评的,决定性的,危险的,挑剔的
Criticize[ 'kritisaiz ]: v. 批评,吹毛求疵,非难
2009.1.1
33．场景分类训练下-历史类之二第二十二篇
There’s an art exhibition here on campus which ties in well with discussions we’ve had about folk art. It’s an exhibition of wildlife art calendars from about a hundred years ago. Like most other folk art, the calendar pictures were not considered to be art in their own day. People just thought of them as a way of decorating a practical object. In fact, the calendar pictures were originally printed as advertising for various companies that made hunting or fishing products, by guns or fishing rods. The calendars were handed out free to customers to thank them for their business. Most people just hung the calendars on their walls where the pictures faded in the sun, and then tore the picture off the calendars as each month passed. As a result collectors today placed a lot of value on calendars that are complete and in good condition. Even though the people who used the calendars did not regard them as art, the original paintings the prints were made from were often of a good quality. In fact, many famous wildlife painters created calendar art at some point in their lives. To them it was a way to getting their work reproduced and show around. One aspect of the exhibit that I find very interesting is the way these pictures reflect changing attitudes toward wildlife. The pictures in the exhibit often portray the thrill and adventure of hunting rather than any particular concern for wildlife preservation. But most of today’s wildlife art shows animals in their natural surroundings without any humans in the scene. This modern wildlife of art appeals to a large numbers of nature lovers, even those who oppose the practice of hunting.
Folk [ fəuk ]: a. 民间的n. 人们
Decorate [ 'dekəreit ]: v. 装饰,装修
Rod [ rɔd ]: n. 杆,棒
Fade [ feid ]: v. 褪色,消失,凋谢
Portray [ pɔ:'trei ]: v. 描写,描写...的肖像,逼真地描写
Thrill [ θril ]: n. 震颤,激动v. 震颤,抖颤,激动
Preservation [,prezə(:)'veiʃən ]: n. 保存
Calendar['kælində ]: n. 日历,月历,日程表