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新概念英语第四册第2课:Spare that spider

时间：2025年07月14日

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下面是小编为大家整理的新概念英语第四册第2课:Spare that spider，本文共5篇，仅供参考，喜欢可以收藏与分享哟!本文原稿由网友“鹿鼎记”提供。

篇1：新概念英语第四册第2课:Spare that spider

Lesson 2 Spare that spider不要伤害蜘蛛

First listen and then answer the following question.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

How much of each year do spiders spend killing insects?

Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race. Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals. We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the harm to us or our belongings.

你可能会觉得奇怪，蜘蛛怎么会是我们的朋友呢？因为它们能消灭那么多的昆虫，其中包括一些人类的大敌，要不是人类受一些食虫动物的保护，昆虫就会使我们无法在地球上生活下去，昆虫会吞食我们的全部庄稼，杀死我们的成群的牛羊。我们要十分感谢那些吃昆虫的鸟和兽，然而把它们所杀死的昆虫全部加在一起也只相当于蜘蛛所消灭的一小部分。此外，蜘蛛不同于其他食虫动物，它们丝毫不危害我们和我们的财物。

Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them. One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and insect never more than six

许多人认为蜘蛛是昆虫，但它们不是昆虫，甚至与昆虫毫无关系。人们几乎一眼就能看出二者的差异，因为蜘蛛都是8条腿，而昆虫的腿从不超过6条。

How many spiders are engaged in this work no our behalf? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch. Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects. It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day. It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.

有多少蜘蛛在为我们效力呢？一位研究蜘蛛的权威对英国南部一块草坪上的蜘蛛作了一次调查。他估计每英亩草坪里有225万多只蜘蛛。这就是说，在一个足球场上约有600万只不同种类的蜘蛛。蜘蛛至少有半年在忙于吃昆虫。它们一年中消灭了多少昆虫，我们简直无法猜测，它们是吃不饱的动物，不满意一日三餐。据估计，在英国蜘蛛一年里所消灭昆虫的重量超过这个国家人口的总重量。

New words and expressions 生词和短语

insect

n. 昆虫

devour

v. 吞食

flock

n. 羊群

herd

n. 牧群

beast

n. 野兽

fraction

n. 小部分

census

n. 统计数字

acre

n. 英亩

content

adj. 满足的

Notes on the text课文注释

1 you may wonder 是这个疑问句的插入语。

2 if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eatting animals，这是个非真实条件状语从句.were表示虚拟语气。

3 almost at a glance，几乎一眼(就能看出)。

Lesson 2 课后练习和答案Exercises and Answer

篇2：新概念英语第四册第22课:Knowledge and progress

Lesson 22 Knowledge and progress知识和进步

First listen and then answer the following question.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

In what two areas have people made no 'progress' at all?

Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest. Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech. With the invention of writing, a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored. Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing. All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science, the tempo was suddenly raised. Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan. The trickle became a stream; the stream has now become a torrent. Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account. What is called 'modern civilization' is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature. but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life. The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge? As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil. It is now being used indifferently for both. Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly whimsical than that of gunners ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.

参考译文

为什么进步这个概念在现代世界显得如此突出？无疑是因为有一种特殊的进步实际上正在我们周围发生，而且变得越来越明显。虽然人类有智力和道德上没有得到普遍提高，但在知识积累方面却取得了巨大的进步。人一旦能用语言同别人交流思想，知识的积累便开始了。随着书写的发明，又迈进了一大步，因为这样一来，知识不仅能交流，而且能储存了。藏书使教育成为可能，而教育反过来又丰富了藏书，因为知识的增长遵循着一种“滚雪球”的规律。印刷术的发明又大大提高了知识增长的速度。所有这些发展都比较缓慢，而随着科学的到来，增长的速度才突然加快。于是，知识便开始有系统有计划地积累起来。涓涓细流汇成小溪，小溪现已变成了奔腾的江河。而且，新知识一旦获得，便得到实际应用。所谓“现代文明”并不是人的天性平衡发展的结果，而是积累起来的知识应用到实际生活中的结果。现在人类面临的问题是：用这些知识去做什么？正像人们常常指出的，知识是一把双刃刀，可以用于造福，也可以用来为害。人们现在正漫不经心地把知识用于这两个方面，例如：炮兵利用科学毁坏人的身体、而外科医生就在附近用科学抢救被炮兵毁坏的人体，还有什么情景比这更可怕、更怪诞的吗？我们不得不严肃地问问我们自己：随着日益增长的知识的力量，如果我们继续利用知识的这种双重性，将会发生什么样的情况呢？

New words and expressions 生词和短语

loom

v. 赫然耸起

manifest

adj.明显的

morality

n. 道德

communicate

v. 交流，交际

compound

adj. 复合的

enhance

v. 增进

tempo

n. 速率

trickle

n. 涓涓细流

torrent

n. 滔滔洪流

humanity

n. 人类

indifferently

adv. 不在乎地

grimly

adv. 可怖地

whimsical

adj. 怪诞的

shatter

v. 毁坏

twofold

adj. 双重的

Notes on the text课文注释

1 with the invention of writing,短语中的with 是“由于”的意思。

2 educaion in its turn added to libraries, 教育发过来也丰富了藏书。

3 a kind of compound interest law, 一种复利法则。compound interest law 有时也被称作雪球法则，即利上滚利，增长很快。

4 turn... to account,利用...

5 Could any spectacle, ...to restore them?这句话从形式上是个疑问句，但实质上起一个加强语气的陈述句的作用，这种疑问句常被称为修辞疑问句

。

Lesson 22 课后练习和答案Exercises and Answer

篇3：新概念英语第四册第32课:Galileo reborn

Lesson 32 Galileo reborn伽利略的复生

First listen and then answer the following question.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

What has modified out traditional view of Galileo in recent times?

In his own lifetime Galileo was the centre of violent controversy; but the scientific dust has long since settled, and today we can see even his famous clash with the Inquisition in something like its proper perspective. But, in contrast, it is only in modern times that Galileo has become a problem child for historians of science.

伽利略在世时是激烈论战的中心。但是，自他逝世以来，那场科学上的纷争早已平息了下来，甚至他和宗教法庭的著名冲突，我们今天也能正确如实地看待。但是相比之下，对于科学史家来说，伽利略只是在现代才变成了一个新的难题。

The old view of Galileo was delightfully uncomplicated. He was, above all, a man who experimented: who despised the prejudices and book learning of the Aristotelians, who put his questions to nature instead of to the ancients, and who drew his conclusions fearlessly. He had been the first to turn a telescope to the sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow Aristotle and Ptolemy together. He was the man who climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped various weights from the top, who rolled balls down inclined planes, and then generalized the results of his many experiments into the famous law of free fall.

令人高兴的是，过去对伽利略的看法并不复杂。他首先是个实验工作者，他蔑视亚里士多德学派的偏见和空洞的书本知识。他向自然界而不是向古人提出问题，并大胆地得出结论。他是第一个把望远镜对准天空的人，观察到的论据足以把亚里士多德和托勒密一起推翻。他就是那个曾经爬上比萨斜塔，从塔顶向下抛掷积各种重物的人；他是那个使地球体沿斜面向下滚动，然后将多次实验结果概括成著名的自由落体定律的人。

But a closer study of the evidence, supported by a deeper sense of the period, and particularly by a new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents in the scientific revolution, has profoundly modified this view of Galileo. Today, although the old Galileo lives on in many popular writings, among historians of science a new and more sophisticated picture has emerged. At the same time our sympathy fro Galileo's opponents ahs grown somewhat. His telescopic observations are justly immortal; they aroused great interest at the time, they had important theoretical consequences, and they provided a striking demonstration of the potentialities hidden in instruments and apparatus. But can we blame those who looked and failed to see what Galileo saw, if we remember that to use a telescope at the limit of its powers calls for long experience and intimate familiarity with one's instrument? Was the philosopher who refused to look through Galileo's telescope more culpable than those who alleged that the spiral nebulae observed with Lord Rosse's great telescope in the eighteen-forties were scratches left by the grinder? We can perhaps forgive those who said the moons of Jupiter were produced by Galileo's spyglass if we recall that in his day, as for centuries before, curved glass was the popular contrivance for producing not truth but illusion, untruth; and if a single curved glass would distort nature, how much more would a pair of them?

但是，对那个时代的深化了解，尤其是以科学家革命中哲学潜流的新意识为依据，进一步仔细研究，就会极大地改变对伽利略的看法。今天，虽然已故的伽利略继续活在许多通俗读物中，但在科学史家中间，一个新的更加复杂的伽利略形象出现了。与此同时，我们对伽利略的反对派的同情也有所增加。伽利略用望远镜所作的观察确实是不朽的，这些观察当时引起人们极大的兴趣，具有重要的理论意义，并充分显示出了仪表和仪器的潜在力量。但是，如果我们想到，便用一架倍数有限的望远镜需要长期的经验和对自己仪器的熟悉程度，那么我们怎么能去责备观察了天空但没有看到伽利略所看到的东西的那些人呢？某位哲学家曾拒绝使用伽利略的望远镜去观察天空；到了19世纪40年代，有人硬把罗斯勋爵高倍望远镜观测到的螺旋状星云说成是磨镜工留下的磨痕。难道反对伽利略的哲学家比诋毁罗斯勋爵造谣者应受到更大的谴责吗？如果我们回想一下伽利略之前几个世纪期间，曲面镜一直是一种用于产生幻影而不是产生真象的把戏装置，那么我们就会原谅那些当时把伽利略观察到的木星卫生说成是伽利略用他的小望远镜变出来的人们，何况一片曲面镜就可歪曲自然，那么伽利略的两片曲面镜对自然的歪曲又该多大呢？

New words and expressions 生词和短语

controversy

n. 争议，争论

dust

n. 纠纷，骚动

clash

n. 冲突

Inquisition

n. （罗马天主教的）宗教法庭

perspective

n. 观点，看法

despise

v. 蔑视

generalize

v. 归纳

undercurrent

n. 潜流

theoretical

adj. 理论上的

potentiality

n. 潜能

intimate

adj. 详尽的

familiarity

n. 熟悉的

culpable

adj. 应受遣责的

Aristotelian

n. 亚里士多德学派的人

Aristotle

n. 亚里士多德（公元前384-322，古希腊哲学家）

Ptolemy

n. 托勒密（公元90-168，古希腊天文学家）

Leaning Tower of Pisa

比萨斜塔

spiral

adj. 螺旋状的

nebula

n. 星云

scratch

n. 擦痕

contrivance

n. 器械

distort

v. 歪曲

Notes on the text课文注释

1 something like,多少，大约。

2 a problem child, problem作定语，修饰child。这是一种比喻修辞法，意思是“新出现的问题”。

3 a man who...who...who...who...，这里一连用了4个定语从句，均用who引导，构成了排比结构，起加强语气的作用。

4 at the time,当时。

5 use a telescope at the limit of its power, 用望远镜的极限功率。

Lesson 32 课后练习和答案Exercises and Answer

篇4：新概念英语第四册第42课:Recording an earthquake

Lesson 42 Recording an earthquake记录地震

First listen and then answer the following question.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

What does a pen have to do to record on paper the vibrations generated by an earthquake?

An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore, to invent instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple. One, for instance, consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses with would stand up end like ninepins. When a shock came, it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable rods fell. If it were severe, they all fell. Thus the rods, by falling, and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the severe, they all fell. Thus the rods, by falling, and by the direction in which they fell, recorded for the slumbering scientist the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him, and the direction from which it came.

地震就像夜间的小偷，不打招呼就来了。因此，有必要发明一种仪器，既不打盹儿，也不睡觉。有些装置非常简单。例如，有一种装置是由一些长短、粗细不同的木棒组成，就像九柱戏的木棒一样坚立着，一旦有地震，就会震动竖立在坚硬的桌上的木棒。如果地震轻微，只有不稳定的木棒倒下；如果地震剧烈，所有的木棒都会例下。由于地震太弱而未惊醒科学家时，木棒倒下的多少和倒下的方向就为科学家记录下了地震的强度和地震方向。

But instruments far more delicate than that were needed if any really serious advance was to be made. The ideal to be aimed at was to devise an instrument that could record with a pen on paper, the movements of the ground or of the table as the quake passed by. While I write my pen moves, but the paper keeps still. With practice, no doubt, I could in time learn to write by holding the pen still while the paper moved. That sounds a silly suggestion, but that was precisely the idea adopted in some of the early instruments (seismometers) for recording earthquake waves. But when table, penholder and paper are all moving, how is it possible to write legibly? The key to a solution of that problem lay in an everyday observation. Why does a person standing in a bus or train tend to fall when a sudden start is made? It is because his feet move on , but his head stays still. A simple experiment will help us a little further. Tie a heavy weight at the end of a long piece of string. With the hand to and fro and around but not up and string so that the weight nearly touches the ground. Now move the hand to and fro and around but not up and down. It will be found that the weight a piece of string. With the hand held high in the air, hold the string so that the weight nearly touches the ground. Now move the hand to and fro and around but not up and down. It will be found that ten weight moves but slightly or not at all. Imagine an earthquake shock shaking the floor, the paper, you and your hand. In the midst of all this movement, the weight and the pen would be still. But as the paper moved from side to side under the pen point, its movement would be recorded in ink upon its surface. It was upon this principle that the first instruments were made, but while the drum was being shaken, the line that the pen was drawing wriggled from side to side. The apparatus thus described, however, records only the horizontal component of the wave movement, which is, in fact, much more complicated. If we could actually see the path described by a particle, such as a sand grain in the rock, it would be more like that of a bluebottle path described by a particle, such as a sand grain in the rock, it would be more like that of a bluebottle buzzing round the room; it would be up and down, to and fro and from side to side. Instruments have been devised and can be so placed that all three elements can be recorded in different graphs.

但是，如果要取得真正重大的进展，需要有比这种装置精细得多的仪器。理想的目标是设计出这样一种仪器：当地震发生时，它能用笔在纸上记录下大地和桌子运动情况。我写字时，笔是移动的，纸是静止的。毫无疑问，经过练习，我最终能够学会笔不动而纸动来写字。这听起来似乎是一种愚蠢的想法，但是早期记录地震波的仪器（地震仪）正是采用了这中思路。可是，当桌子、夹笔装置、纸都在移动时，怎么能书写得清楚呢？可以从我们的日常生活观察中找到这个问题的答案。一个站在公共汽车或火车上，当车突然开动时，他为什么会倾倒呢？这是因为他的脚动了，而他的头保持着静止。再做一个简单的实验可以帮助我们进一步理解这个问题。把一个生物拴在一根长绳子的一端，把手高高举在空中握住绳子，让重物几乎接触地面。然后把手前后左右以及旋转摆动，但不要上下摆动。结果会发现，重物是动了，但动得很小，甚至没动。假定把一支笔拴在重物上，笔尖落在地板上的一张纸上，假定地震发生了，地板、纸、你和你的手都会动，重物和笔却不动。由于纸在笔下来回运动，纸的表面就会用墨水记录下地板运动的情况。根据这一原理，制造出了最初的地震仪器，但是纸是卷在慢慢放置的圆筒上的。只要一切都是静止的，笔就会划出一条直线；但是，圆筒受到震动，笔所画出的线就会就会左右摆动。然而，这里所说的仪器记录下来的只是地震波运动中的水平部份，地震波的运动实际比这要复杂得多。假如我们真能看到诸如岩石中一个沙粒子的运动轨迹，那就像一只嗡嗡叫的绿头苍蝇在屋内飞行的轨迹，呈现出上上下下、来来回回、左左右右3 种性质的运动。已经设计出了一些仪器，它按照一定的安放方式就可测绘出这三种运动的曲线图。

When the instrument is situated at more than 700 miles from the earthquake centre, the graphic record shows three waves arriving one after at short intervals. The first records the arrival of longitudinal vibrations. The second marks the arrival of transverse vibrations which travel more slowly and arrive several minutes after the first. These two have travelled through the earth. It was from the study of these that so much was learnt about the interior of the earth. The third, or main. The third, or main wave, is the slowest and has travelled round the earth through the surface rocks.

如果把这种仪器安装在距震源700多英里远的地方，曲线记录就能显示出前后相同的这3种地震波。首先记录下的是纵向波的到达；然后记录下的是横向波的到达，横向波比纵向波传播得慢，在纵向波到过几分钟后能到达。这珍两种波都是穿过地球而来的。正是从这两种波中的研究中，我们可以了解到地球内部的许多情况。第三种波，即主波，是最慢的，是围绕地球通过表面岩石传来的。

New words and expressions 生词和短语

earthquake

n. 地震

slumber

v. 睡眠

ninepin

n. 九柱戏中的木柱

rigid

adj. 坚硬的

delicate

adj. 灵感的

seismometer

n. 地震仪

penholder

n. 笔杆

legibly

adv. 字迹清楚地

drum

n. 鼓状物

wriggle

v. 扭动

bluebottle

n. 绿头苍蝇

graph

n. 图表

graphic

adj. 图示的

longitudinal

adj. 纵向的

transverse

adj. 横向的

Notes on the text课文注释

1 stand up on end, 竖立着。

2 thw ideal to be aimed at, 理想的目标。

3 I could in time ...,我最终能够...。

4 help us a little further,帮助我们进一步搞清这个问题。

5 with the hand... hold the string...,这是一个祈使句，谓语动词是hold,with the hand held high in the air是介词短语作方式状语。

6 to and fro,来回地。

Lesson 42 课后练习和答案Exercises and Answer

篇5：新概念英语第四册第12课:Banks and their customers

Lesson 12 Banks and their customers银行和顾客

First listen and then answer the following question.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

Why is there no risk to the customer when a bank prints the customer's name on his cheques?

When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money, repayment of which he may demand at any time, either in cash or by drawing a cheque in favour of another person. Primarily, the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor and creditor -- who is which depending on whether the customer's account is in credit or is overdrawn. But, in addition to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer owe a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give in to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is loaded against him.

任何人在银行开一个活期账户，就等于把钱借给了银行。这笔钱他可以随时提取，提取的方式可以是取现金，也可以是开一张以他人为收款人的支票。银行与储户的关系主要是债务人和债权人的关系。究竟谁是债务人谁是债权人，要看储户是有结余还是透支。除了这一基本的简单的概念外，银行和储户彼此还需承担大量义务。其中许多义务往往引起问题和纠纷。但是储户不能像货物的买主那样来抱怨法律对自己不利。

The bank must obey its customer's instructions, and not those of anyone else. When, for example, a customer first opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit his account only in respect of cheques draw by himself. He gives the bank specimens of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or authority to pay out a customer's money on a cheques on which its customer's signature has been forged. It makes no difference that the forgery may have been a very skilful one: the bank must recognize its customer's signature. For this reason there is no risk to the customer in the practice, adopted by banks, of printing the customer's name on his cheques. If this facilitates forgery, it is the bank which will lose, not the customer.

银行必须遵照储户的嘱托办事，不能听从其他人的指令。比如，储户首次在银行开户时，嘱咐银行他的存款只能凭本世人签字的支票来提取。他把自己签名的样本交给银行，对此有一条非常严格的规定：银行没有任何权利或理由把储户的钱让伪造储户的支票取走。即使伪造得很巧妙，也不能付款，因为银行有责任辨认出其储户的签名。因此，某些银行已采用把储户印在支票上的作法。这种做法对储户毫无风险。如果因这种作法出现了伪造的话，受损失的将不是储户，而是银行。

New words and expressions 生词和短语

current

adj. 通用的，流行的

account

n. 账户

cash

n. 现金

debtor

n. 支票

debtor

n. 借方

creditor