100篇短文突破高考英语词汇word文档及朗读MP3（86-90篇）.docVIP

第86篇 Many people take for granted the fact that the January l, 2000 marks the beginning of a new century for all mankind. However, this day doesnt have the same meaning. A leading religious man suggested that all Christians should start counting the date from the birth of Christ. After careful calculations, the year 1 A. D. (Christs birth) was said to be the 28th year after Augustus became the emperor of Rome Today, this calculation seems to be incorrect Historians believe that Christ was actually born four years before this date, but changing the calendar now would only cause confusion around the world because most people are used to the current calendar. There are several other major calendars used for calculating the date. The Buddhist calendar begins from the death of Buddha, so the year 2000 A. D. for Christians will be 2544 for Buddhists. Muslims start their calendar from the time when the Prophet Muhammad escaped from Mecca and went to Medina The Muslim calendar also follows the moon instead of the sun, so the Muslim year is 10 0r 11 days shorter than the Christian year. The year 2000 A D. is really 1420 for Muslims. 很多人理所当然地认为2000年1月(January)1日对所有人类来说都标志着一个新世纪的开始。然而，这一天并非对所有人都有相同的意义。一位宗教领导人建议所有基督教徒都应当从耶稣的诞辰开始计算日期。经过仔细的计算(calculation)，公元1年（耶稣诞生年）据说是Augustus成为罗马皇帝(emperor)的第28年。今天，这种算法看起来似乎是不正确的。历史学家们认为耶稣实际上是于此前4年出生的。但是现在改变历法只会导致世界混乱，因为大部分人习惯了现在的历法． 还有几个计算日期的主要历法。佛教的(Buddhist)历法从佛祖死亡时开始计算，所以基督教的2000年对于佛教徒来说则是2544年。伊斯兰教从先知穆罕穆德从麦加逃往麦地那开始计算日期。伊斯兰教历法也是根据月亮而不是太阳的周期制定的，所以穆斯林教徒(Muslim)的一年要比基督教的一年短10或11天。公元2000年对于伊斯兰教徒来说实际上是1420年。 第87篇 Can you play a musical instrument? Where did you learn to play it? If you were a pupil in a British school, you would most probably learn at school. Approximately 25%of British pupils learn an instrument. Whats more, of the 75% that dont,40% would like to. But what instruments do the pupils learn to play? Traditionally, school children learnt classical instruments, such as the piano or violin. In fact, nearly one out of five music stude