Silence is unnatural to man. He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness. In the【B1 - 赤豆云问答

第1题

听力原文：Silence is unnatural to man. He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness.

听力原文： Silence is unnatural to man. He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness. In between be does all he can to make a noise in the world, and he fears silence mere than anything else. Even his conversation is an attempt to prevent a fearful silence. If he is introduced to another person, and is number of pauses occur in the conversation, he regards himself as a failure. He knows that ninety-nine percent of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly, but he is anxious to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure.

The aim of conversation is, for the most part, to communicate ideas; it is to keep up the buzzing sound. There are, it must be admitted, different qualities of buzz; there is even a buzz that is as annoying as the continuous noise made by a mosquito. But at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito than a quiet person. Most buzzing, fortunately, is pleasant to the ear, and some of it is pleasant even to the mind. He would be a foolish man if he waited until he had a wise thought to take part in the buzzing with his neighbors.

Those who hate to pick up the weather as a conversational opening seem to me not to know the reason why human beings wish to talk. Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of learning anything new. Some of them are content if they are merely allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears, though they have nothing to tell them except that they have seen two or three new plays or that they had food in a Swiss hotel. At the end of an evening, during which they have said nothing meaningful for a long time, they just prove themselves to be successful conservationalists.

(30)

A．To exchange ideas.

B．To prove their value.

C．To achieve success in life.

D．To overcome their fear of silence.

点击查看答案

第2题

Silence is unnatural to man. He begins life with a cry and ends it in still ness. In the i

nterval he does all he can to make a noise in the world, and there are few things of which he stands in more fear than of the absence of noise. Even his conversation is in great measure a desperate attempt to pre vent a dreadful silence. If he is introduced to a fellow mortal, and a number of pauses occur in the conversation, he regards himself as a failure, a worth less person, and is full of envy of the emptiest-headed chatterbox. He knows that ninety-nine per cent of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly, but he longs to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure. The object of conversation is not, for the most part; to communicate ideas: it is to keep up the buzzing sound. There are, it must be admitted, different qualities of buzz: there is even a buzz that is as exasperating as the continuous ping of a mosquito. But at a dinner-party one would rather be a mosquito than a mute. Most buzzing, fortunately, is agreeable to the ear, and some of it is agreeable even to the mind. He would be a foolish man, however, who waited until he had a wise thought to take part in the buzzing with his neighbours. Those who despise the weather as a conversational opening seem to me to be ignorant of the reason why human beings wish to talk. Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of learning anything new. Some of them are content if they are merely allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears. They have nothing to tell them except that they have seen two or three new plays or that they had bad food in a Swiss hotel. At the end of an evening during which they have said nothing at immense length, they just plume on themselves their success as conversationists. I have heard a young man holding up the monologue of a prince among modern wits for half an hour in order to tell us absolutely nothing about himself with opulent long-windedness. None of us except the young man himself liked it, but he looked as happy as if he had a crown on his head.

According to the author, conversation is by and large a grim effort to ______.

A．prevent men thinking they are failures

B．eradicate man's fear of silence

C．avoid silence

D．make a man feel he has value in other's eyes

点击查看答案

第3题

Better an open enemy than a _______ frien.

A.FALSE

B.artificial

C.unreal

D.unnatural

点击查看答案

第4题

I came away from my years of teaching on the college and university level with a convictio

n that enactment (扮演角色), performance, dramatization are the most successful forms of teaching. Students must be incorporated, made, so far as possible, an integral part of the learning process. The notion that learning should have in it an element of inspired play would seem to the greater part of the academic establishment merely silly, but that is nonetheless the case. Of Ezekiel Cheever, the most famous schoolmaster of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, his onetime student Cotton Mather wrote that he so planned his lessons that his pupils "came to work as though they came to play", and Alfred North Whitehead, almost three hundred years later, noted that a teacher should make his/her students "glad they were there"

Since, we are told, 80 to 90 percent of all instruction in the typical university is by the lecture method, we should give close attention to this form. of education. There is, I think, much truth in Patricia Nelson Limerick's observation that "lecturing is an unnatural act, an act for which God did not design humans. It is perfectly all right, now and then, for a human to be possessed by the urge to speak, and to speak while others remain silent. But to do this regularly, one hour and 15 minutes at a time.., for one person to drag on while others sit in silence？ ... I do not believe that this is what the Creator.., designed humans to do".

The strange, almost incomprehensible fact is that many professors, just as they feel obliged to write dully, believe that they should lecture dully. To show enthusiasm is to risk appearing unscientific, un-objective; it is to appeal to the students' emotions rather than their intellect. Thus the ideal lecture is one filled with facts and read in an unchanged monotone.

The cult (推崇) of lecturing dully, like the cult of writing dully, goes back, of course, some years. Edward Shils, professor of sociology, recalls the professors he encountered at the University of Pennsylvania in his youth. They seemed "a priesthood, rather uneven in their merits but uniform. in their bearing; they never referred to anything personal. Some read from old lecture notes and then haltingly explained the thumb-worn last lines. Others lectured from cards that had served for years, to judge by the worn edges... The teachers began on time, ended on time, and left the room without saying a word more to their students, very seldom being detained by questioners... The classes were not large, yet there was no discussion. No questions were raised in class, and there were no office hours" .

The author believes that a successful teacher should be able to______.

A．make study just as easy as play

B．improve students' learning performance

C．make inspired play an integral part of the learning process

D．make dramatization an important aspect of students' learning

点击查看答案

第5题

What is the most alarming consequence of the fast growing population？A．Species are dying o

What is the most alarming consequence of the fast growing population？

A．Species are dying out at an unnatural high speed.

B．Living areas for wildlife are disappearing rapidly.

C．The global weather is becoming warmer.