Pay attention to how the article is organized. It begins with a full page description of a typical American town, which is extremely beautiful until it is destroyed by chemicals. Then she goes on to explain what she thinks it is that causes the change. Her central argument here is: Human beings are tampering with nature and causing changes that are too many and too quick, so that they cannot adapt to them. Today people of course have studied this problem more thoroughly and have reached a much better understanding of the nature and causes of this problem, but what Carson said forty years ago still remains basic. You can relate the text to the realities of our own country and enhance your environmental concerns.
Language points 1. There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings.(1) Once upon a time there was a town in the central part of America where all living things seemed to exist peacefully with their environment. Note the various meanings of the word “life” in the text. In this sentence it means “living things.” heart: the central or most important part in harmony with: in a state of peaceful existence and agreement
Discussion Do you know any environmentalist in your life or from TV, magazine, newspaper, etc.? What do they usually look like and what kind of life do they live? Environmental protection has become a fashionable topic in China, do you have any plans to make contributions to the cause of environmental protection?
bloom侧重表示植物茎叶上所开的形状较大的花。常用 来暗指青春活力等。如： This plant has one white bloom. His face shone with the bloom of youth. [注意]bloom常用在一些固定的词组中，如：in bloom正在 开花；to come into bloom开花；out of bloom凋谢 blossom侧重表示果树上开的花。可指一朵花，也可指 一片花。如： The apple tree blossom is beautiful this year. The trees along the road were heavy with yellow blossoms.
2. The town lay in the midst of prosperous farms, where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. In the midst [midst] of: (infml) among (whilst) white clouds of bloom: white flowers, taller than the green grass, moved like clouds above the green fields bloom: n. 花, 开花期, 最鼎盛期 What beautiful blooms! / a rose in full bloom/ in the bloom of youth v. 开花, 健康成长 The lilies are blooming./ The children are blooming. Compare: bloom/ blossom/ flower (as nouns)
to protect our land and soil; to preserve our forests, rivers and lakes, marshland, wilderness; to stop the global warming; and to save the endangered species. People now generally agree that we cannot develop our economy at the expense of our ecosystem. We must aim at a sustainable growth. We have become aware of all these because, some forty years this woman first wounded the alarm. In the history of human civilization, there have always been some individuals like Carson who are more far-sighted than the average people, who can sense danger before everybody else does, who will give us a warning before it is too late. These people deserve all our admiration and gratitude.
[注意]blossom用在一些固定词组中。如：in blossom（开 花期，兴旺期），come into blossom（进入开花期；进 入繁盛期） flower比上述两个词常用，侧重表示花儿的美丽和芬芳 等含义，亦常暗喻指青春，美丽等。如： This plant has white flowers in summer. Butterflies fluttered (飞舞) among the flowers. [注意]flower常用在in flower（开花期，盛行期）和come in flower（进入开花期；进入盛行期）短语中
Lesson Eleven
TEXT A Silent Spring
Rachel Carson was born on a farm in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College), earned a Masters in Marine Biology at Johns Hopkins, taught Zoology at the University of Maryland, and eventually took a job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While there, she wrote three books about the sea which gave her the financial independence to quit her government job and begin the bus. In Silent Spring (1962) she challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government, and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.
Introduction to the text
This text is written by a courageous woman who pioneered the struggle for environmental protection. Today, environmental protection has become a worldwide movement. It is almost fashionable to talk about this problem. But at the time this article was first published, the author was very much under attack. She was accused of being an alarmist. However Carson did not give in. She went on fighting. Soon the idea caught on. More and more people began to join in. So today there is a general consensus that we are facing a very serious ecological problem and we must do everything possible to keep our water and air clean; to protect our land and soil;