大学英语六级阅读思维导图

ever since herodotus2, the ancient greek historian and traveler, first described egypt as"the gift of the nile3", she has been capturing the imagination of all who visit her.

the awe -inspiring monuments, left by the pharaohs, greeks and romans as well as by the early christians and muslims, attract thousands of visitors every year — but the pyramids, temples, tombs, monasteries and mosques are just part of this country’s fascination.

modern egypt —where mud-brick villages stand beside pharaonic ruins surrounded by towering steel, stone and glass buildings — is at the cultural crossroads of east and west, ancient and modern. while tv antennae decorate rooftops everywhere, from the crowded apartment blocks of cairo to the mud homes of farming villages and the goatskin tents of the bedouins4, the fellahin throughout the nile’s fertile valley still tend their fields with the archaic tools of their ancestors.

in the gargantuan5city of cairo the sound of the muezzin6 summoning the faithful to prayer competes with the pop music of ghetto blasters7 and the screech of car horns. and everywhere there are people : swathed in long flowing robes or western-style clothes, hanging from buses, weaving through an obstacle course of animals and exhaust-spewing traffic or spilling from hivelike buildings.

spectacular edifices aside, the attraction of this country lies in its incredible natural beauty and in the overwhelming hospitality of the egyptian people .

through everything the nile river flows serene and majestic, the lifeblood of egypt as it has been since the beginning of history.

an island country, a whole continent, australia has a remarkably cohesive personality and one which, much to our surprise, is markedly foreign. it is no longer the infant colony, peopled by british convicts2 and pioneers, but a maturing, perhaps still somewhat adolescent individual, ruggedly steering a vital new course in life.

australia is a sprawl of rock and desert, fringed with lush valleys, snow fields, coral spectaculars, storm-stabbed cliffs and rolling beaches, a land rich in minerals, colors, curious flora 3, 230 species of mammals4 , 700 of birds, 400 of reptiles, 70 of amphibia, 2, 200 of fish and 50 , 000 species of insects — and seemingly infinite space . australia is becoming the richest country in the world, materially.

total area of the continent is about half as big as europe, or 25 times the size of britain and ireland. population is bunched mainly in coastal cities, the biggest of which are capitals of the country’s states and the federal capital canberra5 . canberra is a model of a planned garden city and is the seat of a major university. it is smallish in size , but big in importance. sydney is the largest city, and commercial capital of the country.

throughout the country, the basic accommodation unit is the motel, a flat prefabricated6 sprawl of bedrooms. but prices are reasonable and, most important, the rooms are excellent and equipped usually with air-conditioning, a refrigerator and tea and coffee making facilities. bath tubs are rare, as australians prefer the convenience and hygiene of a shower. porterage and other services are rare , as australians don’t like doing a job which smacks of7 servility. after all, this is the land of equality and opportunity.

Feminist sociolinguists(社会语言学家),over the course of the last few decades,have conducted studies that they believe support the conclusion that women are routinely discriminated against in Endlish-speaking society.They point to the words used to describe women,as well as the words used to describe society as a whole,as indications that the English language ,and therefore the English-speaking culture,is slanted towards the advantage of males.

The words used to describe women are used as instrument by feminist sociolinguists to denote an inherent sexism in the English language.Word pairs such as master and mistress and sir and madam,they claim ,epitomize such sexism.All of the words in question once held positive connotations but,while the masculine (男性的)forms have retained their respectable associations,the feminine forms have undergone pejoration and now imply sexual promiscuity(混杂) and other negative characteristics.Feminist researchers assume that such pejoration indicate that the status of women in English-speaking society is relatively low.

These researchers also find fault with the use of masculine words to describe unisex entities .For example ,they feel that there is nothing inherently mainly about mankind, the best man for the job,or the common man.Similarly,the use of such constructions as the "the average students is worried about his grades" indicate to these researchers an inherent sexism in English that is reflective of the cultures in which they are produced .

Carolyn Jacobson ,author of Non-sexist Language has proposed a solution to this conundrum(难题).She advocates the elimination of all sexed words in favor of gender-neutral terms.No longer should we refer to actors and actresses or waiters and waitresses, as such dichotomies(男女有别) allow for the possibility of negative connotations being associated with the feminine designation.Likewise,she believes that phrases such as mankind should give way to human kind and that the use of the masculine pronoun as the default should be abandoned in favor of neutral constructions.Thus, when sexism is eliminated from the English language ,the culture will be more amenable to he deliverance of women as well .

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