2023秋九年级英语全册Unit4Iusedtobeafraidofthedark拓展阅读素材一人教.docVIP

PAGE / NUMPAGES Unit 4 I used to be afraid of the dark Ideas of Home Have Changed A great many people, when they speak of home, tend to associate it with a certain atmosphere, certain physical surroundings, and certain emotional attitudes within themselves. This sentimentality toward home is something that has come down to us from the past. Many modern people do not have it, and I think it is a good thing that they do not. ?In the old days life was difficult. Enemies could attack you and kill or rob you, and you had little protection against them. People did not live in well-built houses where doors could be locked. They did not have the protection of an organized police force or telephones which could summon(召唤) the police instantly. How did this influence the way people felt about home? Small family groups clung tightly together for protection against beasts and against other men. Only the bravest went beyond the small family area. Even in the Middle Ages only the most daring went to lands beyond sea. The human pursuit of security conditioned (受制约) men to love their homes. I am sure that this feeling must have been very strong among the early settlers of the United States who were obliged, by?famine（饥荒）?and oppression(镇压), to take the?plunge?and go to the new land where they knew no one and where they were subject to Indian attack. We can see this even today in the attitudes of minority groups who, because of a feeling of insecurity, still preserve?cohesive(紧密结合的) family ties. ?Today, thanks to modern transportation and well-organized societies, thousands of people willingly and eagerly leave the surroundings where they were born, and the oftener they do so, the less sentiment they are likely to have for those surroundings. I lived in England for three years, and I noticed that boys and girls left their parents homes and lived in?dwellings(住处)?of their own. There they could just telephone and ask an agency to provide them with a house or an apa