[大学新概念英语精美短文（23）] 新版新概念英语第二册

【导语】《新概念英语》是1997年由外语教学与研究出版社和培生教育出版中国有限公司联合出版的一套英语教材。作为一套世界闻名的英语教程，以其全新的教学理念，有趣的课文内容和全面的技能训练，深受广大英语学习者的欢迎和喜爱。进入中国以后，《新概念英语》历经数次重印，以大限度地满足不同层次、不同类型英语学习者的需求。大范文网为您整理了以下内容，仅供参考。希望可以帮助到您！如果您想要了解更多相关内容，欢迎关注大范文网！

【篇一】Electricity

The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric lights, radio, televisions, and telephones that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without them. When there is a power failure, people grope about in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the streets because there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent refrigerators.

Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a little more than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been experimenting in this field for million of years. Scientists are discovering more and more that the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity.

All living cell send out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats, it sends out pulses of record; they form an electrocardiogram, which a doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working.

The brain, too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an electroencephalogram. The electric currents generated by most living cells are extremely small – often so small that sensitive instruments are needed to record them.

But in some animals, certain muscle cells have become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cell are linked together, the effects can be astonishing.

The electric eel is an amazing storage battery. It can seed a jolt of as much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it live. ( An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.) As many as four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel's body are specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it can deliver corresponds roughly to length of its body.

【篇二】译文

电

当今时代是电气时代。人们对电灯、收音机、电视和电话早已习以为常以致于很难想象没有它们的生活会变成什么样。当停电时，人们在闪烁的烛光下摸索着， 因没有红绿灯的指示，汽车在道路上踌躇不前，食物也因冰箱停止工作而变质。

然而，人们只是在两个世纪前一点才开始了解电的使用原理。自然界显然在这方面已经历过了数百万年。 科学家发现越来越多生物世界里可能有益于人类的关于电的有趣秘密。

所有生物细胞都会发出微小的电脉冲。当心脏跳动时，把它发出的脉冲记录下来就成了心电图，医生可以据此研究以确定心脏是如何工作的。

大脑也发出脑电波，这可在脑电图上记录下来。 大多数生物细胞发出的电流都是极微小的，小到要用灵敏仪器才能记录下来。

但有一些动物的某些肌肉细胞能转化成专门的发电机，以致完全失去肌肉细胞的功能。这种细胞大量地连接在一起时产生的效果非常令人吃惊。

电鳗就是一种令人惊异的蓄电池。 它可以在水中发出相当于800伏特电压的电流(家庭用户的电压只有120伏特)。 在电鳗的身体里，多达五分之四的细胞都专门用来发电，而且发出的电流的强度大约和它身体的长度成正比。

【篇三】

The Definition of "Price"

Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed among buyers. The price system of the United States is a complex network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor, professional, transportation, and public-utility services.

The interrelationships of all these prices make up the “system” of prices. The price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad, complicated system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or less upon everything else.

If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define “price”, many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words that price is the money values of a product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction.

This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For a complete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much more than the amount of money involved must be known. Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, return privileges, and other factors.

In other words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the factors that comprise the total “package” being exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price.

【篇四】译文

“价格”的定义

价格决定资源的使用方式。价格也是供给有限的产品与服务在买方中的配给手段。 美国的价格系统是复杂的网状系统，包括经济生活中一切产品买卖的价格，也包括无数的服务，诸如劳动力、专业人员、交通运输、公共事业等服务的价格。

所有这些价格的内在联系构成了价格系统。任何一种特定产品或服务的价格都与这个庞大而复杂的系统密切相关，而且似乎或多或少地取决于系统中其它成份。

如果随机挑选一群人，问问他们如何定义"价格"，许多人会回答价格就是根据卖方提供的产品或服务，买方向其付出的钱数。换句话说，价格就是市场交易中约定的产品或服务的货币价值。

当然，该定义就其本身来说自有其道理。 但要获得对价格在任何一桩交易中的完整认识，就必须认识到价格不仅仅是涉及到的货币数量。买卖双方不仅要清楚交易中的货币数量，而且要非常熟悉交易物的质量和数量，交易的时间、地点，付款形式，信用条件和折扣，对产品或服务的质量保证、交货条款、退赔权利等等因素。

也就是说，买卖双方必须通晓构成交易物价格的通盘细节以便于评估报价。

【篇五】长难句讲解

本期的内容大部分都是长难句，背诵起来可能会些吃力，小编在这里举两个例子，希望大家能够学习分析长难句的方法，把一个长句子拆分了，再理解记忆，这样会有助于背诵。

1、The price system of the United States is a complex network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor, professional, transportation, and public-utility services.

此句的主干部分是Price system is a complex network.后面的部分从整体上来看是一个定语从句，which is composed of the prices of …… as well as ……，products和services是并列成分。这两者，分别由bought and sold in the economy和including……补充。

2、Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, return privileges, and other factors.

这句话看似很长，其实结构并不难。句子主干部分就是buyer and seller should be familiar with……。只是句子的宾语部分很长，用not only……, but……连接起来，强调的语气上有递进，但内容都是“需要熟知通晓”的，包括货币数量、产品服务的数量质量、交易时间地点……等等。