大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 05 对食物的错误看法
05-A. Fallacies about Food
Many primitive peoples believed that by eating an animal they could get some of the good qualities of that animal for themselves. They thought, for example, that eating deer would make them run as fast as the deer. Some savage tribes believed that eating enemies that had shown bravery in battle would make them brave. Man-eating may have started because people were eager to become as strong and brave as their enemies.
Among civilized people it was once thought that ginger root by some magical power could improve the memory. Eggs were thought to make the voice pretty. Tomatoes also were believed to have magical powers. They were called love apples and were supposed to make people who ate them fall in love.
Later another wrong idea about tomatoes grew up - the idea that they were poisonous. How surprised the people who thought tomatoes poisonous would be if they could know that millions of pounds of tomatoes were supplied to soldiers overseas during World War II.
Even today there are a great many wrong ideas about food. Some of them are very widespread.
One such idea is that fish is the best brain food. Fish is good brain food just as it is good muscle food and skin food and bone food. But no one has been able to prove that fish is any better for the brain than many other kinds of food.
Another such idea is that you should not drink water with meals. Washing food down with water as a substitute for chewing is not a good idea, but some water with meals has been found to be helpful. It makes the digestive juices flow more freely and helps to digest the food.
Many of the ideas which scientists tell us have no foundation have to do with mixtures of foods. A few years ago the belief became general that orange juice and milk should never be drunk at the same meal. The reason given was that the acid in the orange juice would make the milk curdle and become indigestible. As a matter of fact, milk always meets in the stomach a digestive juice which curdles it; the curdling of the milk is the first step in its digestion. A similar wrong idea is that fish and ice cream when eaten at the same meal form a poisonous combination.
Still another wrong idea about mixing foods is that proteins and carbohydrates should never be eaten at the same meal. Many people think of bread, for example, as a carbohydrate food. It is chiefly a carbohydrate food, but it also contains proteins. In the same way, milk, probably the best single food, contains both proteins and carbohydrates. It is just as foolish to say that one should never eat meat and potatoes together as it is to say that one should never eat bread or drink milk.
【课文译文】
对食物的错误看法
很多原始民族认为吃某种动物可以使他们获得这种动物的一些好的品质。例如，他们认为吃鹿可以使他们跑得像鹿一样快。一些野蛮部落相信，吃战争中表现勇敢的敌人会使他们勇敢。吃人现象开始发生可能是因为人们渴望变得像他们的敌人那样强壮、勇敢。
一些文明人曾经认为，姜根有某种魔力，能改善他们的记忆力。蛋能美化他们的声音。也有人认为西红柿有魔力。西红柿被称为爱的苹果，他们认为吃西红柿能使人坠入爱河。
后来又出现了另一个关于西红柿的错误观点——西红柿有毒。如果认为西红柿有毒的人知道二战中数百万磅的西红柿提供给了在海外的战士们，他们会多么吃惊!
甚至在今天也有很多关于食物的错误看法，其中一些看法很普遍。一种想法认为鱼是最佳益脑食物。鱼是有益于大脑的食物，就像它对肌肉、皮肤、骨骼一样有益。但是没有人能够证明对于大脑来说鱼比其他种类的食物更好。
另外一种想法认为，吃饭的时候不应该喝水。虽然用水把食物冲下去来代替咀嚼不是个好主意，但是人们发现吃饭时喝点水是有益的。水能使消化液更自由地流动，有助于消化食物。
很多想法是关于食物混在一起吃的，而科学家告诉我们，这些想法毫无根据。几年前有一种很普遍的看法，认为不能在同一餐中喝桔子汁和牛奶，其理由是桔子汁中的酸性物质能使牛奶凝结而难以消化。事实上，牛奶在胃里总会遇到一种使它凝结的消化液，而这种凝结是消化的第一步。类似的一种错误想法认为在同一餐中吃鱼和冰淇淋会形成一种有毒的化合物。
还有一种关于食物混在一起吃的错误想法，即不能在同一餐中吃蛋白质食物和淀粉质食物。例如，很多人认为面包是一种淀粉质食物。虽然面包主要是一种淀粉质食物，但它也含有蛋白质。同样，牛奶可能是最好的单一食物，但它也含有蛋白质和淀粉。不要吃面包喝牛奶，这种说法是愚蠢的，就像说不要把肉类和土豆一起食用一样。
大学英语自学教程(上册) unit 06 美国庭院甩卖，真棒
11-A. The Great American Garage Sale
Not long ago, Charles Erickson and his family decided to do some spring housecleaning. Sorting through their possessions, they came up with some 1,500 old, unwanted items - all sorts of things they wanted to get rid of. The Ericksons decided to do what a lot of other Americans are doing these days -- have a “garage sale.” They posted homemade signs throughout the neighborhood, ran an advertisement in the local newspaper, then set out the unwanted objects on the front yard of their home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and waited to see if any one would come. The Ericksons needn’t have worried. Eager buyers bought all but 50 of the items in one weekend, leaving the family $442 richer.
Garage sale, yard sale, basement sale - whatever they're called and wherever they're held, Americans are having them in ever-increasing numbers.
The variety of things put up for sale is really wonderful - dishes, books, used clothing, tools, tires, empty bottles, bicycles, furniture. A man in Atlanta, Georgia, even sold a full-size replica of a 1931 Ford.
"You wouldn't believe the stuff people will buy,” says Mrs. Jerry McNeely of Houston, Texas, who has held two garage sales with friends. "On the other hand, you wouldn’t believe some of the things people will put out to sell.”
Why would Americans want to shop by searching among someone else’s castoffs?
Rising living costs are considered by almost everyone as a reason both for holding sales and for attending them. The seller makes a little extra money and the buyer saves quite a lot, since garage-sale items usually are priced at a very small part of their original cost.
But beyond that, they’re fun. Garage sales have become suburban social events, drawing people of all ages. Neighbors enjoy meeting new people, and some families even serve drinks and cakes. One psychologist suggests that people are fed up with the computerization of their lives - they may be searching for their roots. Many of the younger buyers say they are turned off by the poor quality of modern goods and are looking for remnants of a stronger and firmer era, when things were built to last.
Some people have made garage-sale shopping into a hobby; they spend their weekends going from sale to sale, hoping to run across a real treasure. Says one long-time weekend bargain hunter, "In the back of your mind you have the hope of finding some fabulous painting stored away somewhere or something else of great value for a bargain price.
Diana McLellan, a reporter for the Washington Star-News, wrote, "The garage sale is like the quality of mercy - it blessed him that gives and him that takes. It separates clothes, toys, pots, cups, forks and knives from their reluctant owners and places them in loving new homes.”
How long will all this enthusiasm continue? Says one recent seller, “Some day the people who are buying are bound to be faced with the same problem we had – getting rid of this stuff.”
【课文译文】
美国庭院甩卖，真棒
不久前，查里?埃里克森一家人决定进行一次春季大扫除。在整理东西的时候，他们发现大约有1500件旧的、不需要的东西——这些东西都是他们想处理掉的。埃里克森一家决定像许多其他美国人近来所做的那样——搞一次“庭院甩卖”。他们向四邻寄去自制的传单，并在当地的报纸上登了一则广告，然后把这些不想要的东西搬到他们家的前院里——他的家住在密歇根州布隆菲尔德山——看看有没有人来购买。埃里克森一家根本用不着担心，踊跃的买主在一个周末就买走了大部分东西，只剩下50件，这给埃里克林一家增加了442美元的额外收入。
车库甩卖，庭院甩卖，地下室甩卖，不论怎么称呼，也不论在什么地方举办，美国人越来越热衷于这种方式的甩卖活动。
甩卖的东西种类之多确实令人惊讶——盘子、书籍、穿过的衣服、工具、轮胎、空瓶子、自行车、家具等等。在乔治亚州的亚特兰大，一个人甚至卖掉了一套与1931年生产的福特牌汽车同等尺寸的复制品。
“你根本想不到人们会买些什么，”来自德克萨斯州休斯顿市的杰里?迈克尼里夫人如是说。她和她的朋友曾举办过两次庭院甩卖。“另外，你也想不到人们会卖些什么。”
为什么美国人会买其他人不要的东西呢?
绝大多数人认为生活费用的增加是美国人举办和参加这类甩卖活动的原因之一。卖主挣了一点外快，而买主又节省了一大笔钱，因为甩卖的东西的价格比它的原价低得多。
除此原因之外，庭院甩卖非常有趣。甩卖已成为城区的社交活动，吸引着各个年龄段的人们。邻居们很乐意结交新朋友，有的家庭甚至自愿提供饮料和糕点。一位心理学家指出，人们已经厌倦了计算机时代的生活，他们是在寻根。许多年轻的买主说，他们不喜欢劣质的现代商品，他们在寻找那个以经久耐用，坚固结实为准则的时代生产的产品，只有那个时代的产品才能用得长久。
有些人逛甩卖市场已成癖好，他们把周末都花在逛甩卖市场上，希望能发现一件宝贝。一位一直在周末找便宜货的人说：“你心里暗自希望能发现一幅好画，或者是一件特别值钱但价格却很便宜的东西。”
华盛顿星报的记者黛安娜?麦克莱伦这样写道：“庭院甩卖是一项善举——它既降福于施予者也降福于获取者。它让衣服、玩具、罐子、杯子、刀叉等离开不愿再要它们的主人而进入可爱的新家。”
这种举办和参与甩卖的热情能维持多久呢?一个最近举办甩卖的人说：“总有一天那些买东西的人一定会面临我们现在遇到的同一问题——怎样打发掉这些东西。”
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