当代的研究生英语课件U3_Text_A.ppt

Unit 3 Content Warming-up Questions:  1) In what ways does human activity influence the environment?  Offer some examples. 2) Have you experienced the pressure of China’s large  population? Tell about your experiences.  3) For how long do you think China should insist its Family  Planning Activity? Why? THE CASE AGAINST MAN (PART I)  Isaac Asimov Main Idea and Structure First reading: Scan the text and try to catch the main idea. The following words are for your reference to organize the idea: Mankind intricate web dependent on single species increasing explosion Text Study Para.1-3 1 The first mistake is to think of mankind as a thing in itself. It isn’t. It is part of an intricate web of life. And we can’t think even of life as a thing in itself. It isn’t. It is part of the intricate structure of a planet bathed by energy from the Sun. 2 The Earth, in the nearly 5 billion years since it assumed approximately its present form, has undergone a vast evolution. When it first came into being, it very likely lacked what we would today call an ocean and an atmosphere. These were formed by the gradual outward movement of material as the solid interior settled together. 3 Nor were ocean, atmosphere, and solid crust independent of each other after formation. There is interaction always: evaporation, condensation, solution, weathering. Far within the solid crust there are slow, continuing changes, too, of which hot springs, volcanoes, and earthquakes are the more noticeable manifestations here on the surface. Para.4-6 4 Between 2 billion and 3 billion years ago, portions of the surface water, bathed by the energetic radiation from the Sun, developed complicated compounds in organization sufficiently versatile to qualify as what we call “life”. Li