英语是当今世界上主要的国际通用语言这一,也是世界上最广泛使用的语言。世界上约有20国家把英语作为官方语言或第二语言使用。下面是小编带来的长篇英语文章,欢迎阅读!
长篇英语文章1The Birth of Coca-Cola
The image of Coke is youthful and modern. But Coke is not new. It is more than a century old.
It was invented in 1886 by a pharmacist called John Styth Pemberton. Pemberton had adrugstore in Atlanta, where he sold liver pills,hair restorer,cough mixtures and othermedicines. He made these preparations to his own recipes, but people could buy similarproducts at any drugstore. They loved his Indian Queen hairdye, but there was nothing specialabout it. Pemberton wanted to make a product that people could buy only from him. He wantedthem to have a reason to choose his shop rather than any other. Tonic is a drink that issupposed to do you good. In the old days,many chemists made and sold their own tonicwine.
In 1885 Pemberton came up with French Wine Cola. It must have tasted rather like Coke. Atfirst Pemberton put a little alcohol in it, but later he left it out. He is said to have mixed hisbrew in the backyard, in a three-legged brass pot like a witch's cauldron. Pemberton sold thenew drink as a quick cure for headaches. But headaches or no headaches, his staff were soonwatering down the syrup and drinking it to satisfy their thirst on hot days. Maybe he really hadinvented a new soft drink product.
On Saturday 8, May 1886, Pemberton took a jug of the drink down the street to anotherdrugstore, Jacobs' Pharmacy-to do a test. Jacobs' pharmacy had a soda fountain. Thismachine adds carbon dioxide to water to make fizzy soda, and then mixes it with syrup to makea new refreshing drink. Stalls selling ice cream and fizzy drinks made by soda fountains becameknown simply as soda fountains. The staff and customers of Jacobs' pharmacy triedPemberton's headache cure mixed with soda and loved its taste. It was excellent, but it did nothave a name. One of Pemberton's partners, his book-keeper Frank Robinson, suggested Coca-Cola Syrup and Extract-which became Coca-Cola for short. He thought the two Cs would gowell in advertising. He wrote down the name in the simple flowing handwriting that he used inhis account books. His script became the product's trademark. Coca-Cola went on saleimmediately at five cents a glass.
长篇英语文章2American Food: You Are What You Eat
"You are what you eat."Nutrition experts often use this saying to promote better eating habits.What we put in our mouths does become a part of us. But we can look at this statementanother way. What we eat reflects who we are-as people and as a culture. Do you want tounderstand another culture? Then you ought to find out about its food.
Learning about American food can give us a real taste of American culture. What is "Americanfood"? At first you might think the answer is as easy as pie. To many people, American foodmeans hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken and pizza. If you have a "sweet tooth", you mighteven think of apple pie or chocolate chip cookies. It's true that Americans do eat those things.But are those the only kind of foods you can find in America? Except for Thanksgiving turkey,it's hard to find a typically "American" food. The United States is a land of immigrants. SoAmericans eat food from many different countries. When people move to America, they bringtheir cooking styles with them. That's why you can find almost every kind of ethnic food inAmerica. In some cases, Americans have adopted foods from other countries as favorites.Americans love Italian pizza, Mexican tacos and Chinese egg rolls. But the American versiondoesn't taste quite like the original!
As with any large country, the U.S.A has several distinct regions. Each region boasts its ownspecial style of food. Visit the South and enjoy country-style cooking. Journey throughLouisiana for some spicy Cajun cuisine. Take a trip to New England and sample savory seafooddishes. Travel through the Midwest, "the breadbasket of the nation," for delicious baked goods.Cruise over to the Southwest and try some tasty Tex-Mex treats. Finish your food tour in thePacific Northwest with some gourmet coffee.
Americans living at a fast pace often just "grab a quick bite". Fast food restaurants offer peopleon the run everything from fried chicken to fried rice. Microwave dinners and instant foods makecooking at home a snap. Of course, one of the most common quick American meals is asandwich. If it can fit between two slices of bread, Americans probably make a sandwich out ofit. Peanut butter and jelly is an all-time American favorite. Americans on the go also tend to eata lot of "junk food." Potato chips, candy bars, soft drinks and other goodies are populartreats. Many people eat too many of these unhealthy snacks. But others opt for more healthyeating habits. Some even go "all natural". They refuse to eat any food prepared with chemicalsor additives.
American culture is a good illustration of the saying "you are what you eat". Americansrepresent a wide range of backgrounds and ways of thinking. The variety of foods enjoyed inthe U.S. reflects the diversity of personal tastes. The food may be international or regional.Sometimes it's fast, and sometimes it's not so fast. It might be junk food, or maybe it'snatural food. In any case, the style is all-American.
长篇英语文章3Turkey and the Kurds
土耳其和库尔德人
Hunger and thirst
饥饿和干渴
A hunger strike causes new tension between Turkey and its Kurds
绝食抗议引发土耳其和库尔德人间新的紧张局势
What happens if they start dying? The question weighs ever more heavily as hundreds of Kurdsin prisons across Turkey continue the hunger strike they launched on September 12th. Human-rights activists are saying that many have reached “a critical threshold.”
如果他们开始死亡会怎么样?由于关押在土耳其各地监狱的数百名库尔德人自9月12日开始绝食抗议,现在仍在继续,这个问题变得愈加严峻。人权积极分子表示,其中很多人已经到了“生死边缘”。
The hunger strikers, surviving on sugar water and vitamins, vow to keep up their fast until theruling Justice and Development (AK) party meets their demands for greater linguistic rightsand better prison conditions for the leader of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),Abdullah Ocalan. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has responded withthreats to reintroduce capital punishment, to which Mr Ocalan was sentenced after his capturein 1999 (and which AK abolished when it took office in 2002, in line with European Uniondemands.)
靠着糖水和维生素维持生命的绝食抗议者们发誓要继续绝食,直到执政的正义与发展党满足他们的要求,为分裂势力库尔德工人党领导人阿卜杜拉·奥贾兰提供更大的话语权和更好的监狱环境。而土耳其总理雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安则以威胁重新启用死刑作为回应——奥贾兰在1999年被捕后被判处死刑(为了符合欧盟的要求,正义与发展党于2002年上台后废除了死刑)。
Mr Erdogan has ridiculed the strikers, growling “let them continue” at a recent AK meeting.When five MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said they would join in,a breezy prime minister noted “some of them are in serious need of dieting.” Yet thegovernment has conceded one demand with a new bill to allow Kurds to use their mothertongue in court. The EU’s ambassador in Ankara, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said this could “createthe space for political dialogue.”
埃尔多安在最近一次正义与发展党的会议上嘲笑绝食抗议者,怒吼道“让他们继续”。来自亲库尔德的和平民主党的五名议员表示将加入绝食抗议后,埃尔多安仍旧安然自若,称“这有些人很需要节食”。但是政府已就库尔德人的要求做出让步,一项新法案将允许库尔德人在法庭上使用母语。欧盟驻土耳其代表让-莫里斯·里佩尔表示,这能“为政治对话创造空间”。
The Kurds are unlikely to stop their hunger strike until Mr Ocalan is granted access to hislawyers as they demand. Mr Ocalan’s status is shrouded in mystery. He has not met thelawyers for 15 months. The government claims this is because the ferry that carries them to hisisland prison south of Istanbul has broken down. Nobody believes this, not least because MrOcalan’s younger brother visited him in September. He returned saying the PKK leader wasunkempt and was upset by the escalation in PKK violence that prompted Mr Erdogan toscupper secret peace talks.
但库尔德人很可能会继续绝食抗议,直到他们能够让奥贾兰能见到律师。奥贾兰的状况罕有人知晓。他已经15个月未和律师见面。政府声称这是由于轮船故障使得律师无法前往奥贾兰在押的伊斯坦布尔南面的岛上监狱。不过没人相信这种说法,因为奥贾兰的弟弟九月还看望过他。他回来后说,这位库尔德工人党的领袖衣容不整,而且因库尔德工人党的暴力活动愈演愈烈导致埃尔多安中止秘密和谈而情绪低落。
Yet the younger Mr Ocalan shed no light on whether it was his brother who is shunning thelawyers or the government that is blocking their visits. Proponents of the first theory speculatethat Mr Ocalan will not see the lawyers (or ask the PKK to end its violence) unless thegovernment moves him from solitary confinement to house arrest. Backers of the secondidea think the government wanted to break the links between Mr Ocalan and his fighters (thelawyers carried messages) in hopes of triggering a leadership struggle that would fracture thePKK.
但奥贾兰的弟弟并未说明究竟是奥贾兰在回避律师,还是政府不允许他见律师。持前一种观点的人猜测,政府只有把奥贾兰从单独监禁转为软禁,奥贾兰才会和律师见面(或呼吁工人党停止暴力活动)。后一种观点的支持者则认为政府是想割裂奥贾兰和库尔德工人党之间的联系(因为律师可以传递消息),以期在党内引发领导权争夺,从而导致党派分裂。
If so, the strategy has failed. Mr Ocalan’s grip may be weaker but he continues to be reveredby millions of Kurds. Giant images of the mustachioed PKK leader can be seen throughoutKurdish towns in neighbouring Syria, where an affiliate called the PYD seized control after thewithdrawal of President Bashar Assad’s troops. Turkey has been lobbying America for a no-flyzone over northern Syria in hopes of squashing the PKK’s expanding influence. Wary ofwading into further Middle Eastern misadventures the Americans have said no. But in a show ofsupport NATO is expected, at Turkey’s request, to deploy Patriot missiles in the province ofKilis, which borders Syria.
如果真如后一种观点所想,那土耳其政府的这一招已经失败了。奥贾兰对库尔德工人党的掌控可能有所削弱,但他仍然为广大库尔德人所崇敬。在邻国叙利亚,库尔德人聚居的城镇在阿萨德总统的军队撤出后由隶属于库尔德工人党的民主联盟党接管,在那里,这位蓄八字胡的库尔德工人党领袖的大幅肖像随处可见。土耳其一直劝说美国在叙利亚北部设立禁飞区,以图遏制库尔德工人党日益扩大的影响力。而唯恐在中东的泥潭里越陷越深的美国人没有同意。但为了表示支持,在土耳其的要求下,北约将在与叙利亚交界的土耳其基利斯省部署爱国者导弹。
The Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, says the missiles would defend Turkey against a possiblechemical-weapon attack. Western diplomats suggest that, contrary to reports in the Turkishpress, the Patriots could not create a no-fly zone for Syrian rebels and refugees, but are“mostly about making the Turks feel loved.” Turkish tanks remain on hills facing a PYD-heldtown this week after PKK sympathisers fired shots into the air during a funeral last month. Ifthe stand-off with hunger strikers persists, more funerals will follow.
土耳其总统阿卜杜拉·居尔表示,北约部署的爱国者导弹可使土耳其免遭化学武器的打击。而西方国家的外交官们所持看法与土耳其媒体的报道相左,他们认为,爱国者导弹并不能为叙利亚叛军和难民创造禁飞区,而“主要是让土耳其人感受到关爱”。上月,在民主联盟党控制的城镇上举行了一场葬礼,库尔德工人党的支持者们在葬礼上向天鸣枪,此后一直到本周,土耳其的坦克部队就一直部署在那座城镇对面的山丘上。如果土耳其政府与绝食抗议者继续僵持下去,更多葬礼将接踵而至。