《英语阅读技巧与实践》是为高等学校英语专业学生编写的一套阅读(以前称为泛读)教材。全套书共7册,既可供英语专业本、专科生使用,也可供教师进修学院、函授大学和夜大的英语专业学员使用。
本套教材依据《高等学校英语专业英语教学大纲》对英语阅读课程的要求编写,其编写的目的是:教给学生阅读理论和技巧,培养他们细致观察语言的能力和假设判断、推理验证等逻辑思维能力;培养他们阅读的兴趣,使他们在较短的时间里尽快扩大词汇量和知识面,提高思想和文化素养,从而提高阅读水平和能力,通过阅读更快更好地获取世界上各国有用的政治、经济、文化和科技等方面的信息,为我国的改革开放和社会主义建设服务。

PAssAGE 1Hunting for Viruses on the Amazon
[1]The mouth of the Amazon River has long been a starting place for huntersgoing to the j ungles of Brazil.In recent years it has been,too,the headquarters fora middle-aged American couple who hunt for the smallest living things andperhaps the most deadly viruses.Dr.Causey and his wife have discovered morenew types and more old ones in new places than all of the other research teams.
[2]Dr.Causey insists that their success is due to the large number of viruses inthe forests of the Amazon.He says that it is not the skill that he and his wife havedeveloped during their eighteen years of work in Brazil that has caused theirwonderful discoveries.
[3]"We have found the loveliest diseases right in our back yard,"he told meone day as we walked through a light rain along a j ungle trail.
[4]"Oh,these viruses are here all right.There is in the j ungle a great pool ofdisease which iS carried in the blood of animals and birds.Some of the diseases canbe caught by people.It may be that we shall find that the j ungle is a great centreof virus disease and that it overflows from here to other parts of the world.It maybe that birds carry the viruses to far countries.It may be that some viruses whichare not harmless,but which now reproduce in man without making him ill,maychange and become deadly to him.'Viruses waiting for a disease',they aresometimes called.This iS i ust an idea,you understand.We do not know-but it isimportant that we find out,and the first step in finding out is to learn whatviruses there are in the i ungles."
[5]-1 There is a Brazilian story about the beginning of the world which goes:"When God was making the world,he tried to keep everything in balance.Whenhe made a desert.he provided it with some green places.When he made a land thatwas beautiful,he gave it storms and other terrible things caused by the weather.Where the earth was rich below the surface。it was hard to 1i
…… 阅读对于学习语言的重要性是不言而喻的。古人有言,“读书破万卷,下笔如有神”,指的就是阅读对掌握语言、提高写作能力所起的作用。另一说“读万卷书,行万里路”,也包含着类似的意思。至于“青灯黄卷”、“寒窗苦读”,则除了倡导发愤学习,还说明了对大量阅读的重视。
语言学习是相通的。大量阅读对掌握外语也同样重要。阅读有助于培养语感。对一种语言的感受,是建立在对该语言的频繁接触上的。对在母语环境里的外语学习者来说,可以说没有大量阅读就不可能产生对所学外语的语感,而没有语感,则只能得语言之皮毛。大量阅读也有助于增加语汇和表达方式,无论是本国语还是外语,我们所掌握的用以书面传递思想的词汇和句法,大多是通过阅读得来的,书读得越多,掌握的表达方式也越多,表达能力也越强。阅读对写作所起的作用更为直接。通常,写不好的根本原因,除了思想贫乏、逻辑混乱等内在智力因素外,主要还应归结于读得太少,没有从阅读别人的文章中学得自己写作所需的语汇和表达方式。阅读还能丰富我们的文化知识,培根就认定“读书使人充实”,而掌握有关**的文化背景知识,对外语学习者来说尤为重要。一篇域外的文章,一部外国的小说,都会向我们展示一个新的世界,都有助于我们对其语言的了解和领悟。阅读对学习外语的重要性是怎么强调也不会过分的。
如果把英语学习中的阅读分为精读和泛读两类的话,那么现时人们的注意力往往过多地置于精读,而忽略了泛读。精读不能说不重要,古人也有“熟读唐诗三百首,不会吟诗也会吟”之类强调精读之说。问题在于我们大多着眼于试验田式的小块文章上的精耕细作’’(不厌其烦地释义,反反复复地解释语法,不无炫耀地解析词汇等等),而把“大量阅读”放在极其次要的地位。虽然设有泛读课,但大多泛读不“泛”,阅读量极其有限,说到底不过是精读的变种。尽管对一小篇课文的研读可以把文中的词汇与句式搞得滚瓜烂熟,对英语学习也有所帮助。

PASSAGE 1 Hunting for Viruses on the Amazon
PASSAGE 2 Owls
PASSAGE 3 Canada
PASSAGE 4 Climate and Vegetation
PASSAGE 5 Mass Production
PASSAGE 6 Like Father, Like Son?
PASSAGE 7 Zoos in the Past and Now
PASSAGE 8 The Balance of Nature
PASSAGE 9 A Famous Speech
PASSAGE 10 The Marketplace on the Internet
PASSAGE 11 Tips on Doing Business with the Arabs
PASSAGE 12 The British Police and the American Police
PASSAGE 13 The San Francisco Earthquake
PASSAGE 14 Television
PASSAGE 15 New England
PASSAGE 16 How Is Leather Made?
PASSAGE 17 The Pennsylvania Dutch
PASSAGE 18 Living a Long Life
PASSAGE 19 Texas
PASSAGE 20 The Female Mosquito
PASSAGE 21 A Marriage of Convenience
PASSAGE 22 Rabies
PASSAGE 23 A Library Mishap
PASSAGE 24 Dreams--What Do They Mean?
PASSAGE 25 Knowing Everybody in Bardfield by Sight
PASSAGE 26 A Meeting about a Flower Show
PASSAGE 27 The Earth's Spreading Deserts
PASSAGE 28 Alfred Nobel--a Man of Contrast
PASSAGE 29 How to Cope with Insomnia?
PASSAGE 30 Darwin's Theory
PASSAGE 31 Have You Ever Seen a Flying Saucer?
PASSAGE 32 Down the Mine
PASSAGE 33 Shooting an Elephant
PASSAGE 34 Chinese-Americans: Success of an Ethnic Group
PASSAGE 35 Cigarettes
PASSAGE 36 Faithful Hachiko
PASSAGE 37 The Three Brothers
PASSAGE 38 The Two Generals
PASSAGE 39 The Marvels of Colour
PASSAGE 40 Pollution: a Threat to Our Environment
APPENDIX Vocabulary
……

1.根据《高等学校英语专业英语教学大纲》编写,具有可靠性;2.以阅读技巧为主线,编排合理,具有**性;3.从事实性阅读、评判性阅读、报刊阅读到鉴赏性阅读,循序渐进,具有科学性;4.体裁多样,题材广泛,具有可读性;5.选材精粹,课堂实用,具有操作性;6.题型丰富,练习适量,具有针对性。