外研版选修三册第六单元听力练习

Unit 6 Nature in words

Bill: Who's your favourite nature writer?

Susan: Jack London.

Bill: Jack London? Didn't he write adventure stories? He's not really a nature writer.

Susan: But you see, the main reason his adventure stories work so well are his descriptions of people and animals interacting with nature.

Bill: You'll have to convince me.

Susan: Well, for instance, right now I'm reading his story To Build A Fire. Here London is explaining how cold it is:

“As he turned to go, he forced some water from his mouth as an experiment. There was a sudden noise that surprised him. He tried it again. And again, in the air, before they could fall to the snow, the drops of water became ice that broke with a noise.”

In this same story, London talks a lot about snow and ice, but this is his best description of the cold.

Bill: But it isn't poetry, is it? I mean, he uses only very simple words.

Susan: I agree that he only uses simple words. But the reason his descriptions of nature work is that they are so vivid and concrete. Consider what happens later in the story when the man tries to build a fire:

“High up in the tree one branch dropped its load of snow. This fell on the branches beneath. This process continued, spreading through the whole tree. The snow fell without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was dead. Where it had burned was a pile of fresh snow.”

You can easily imagine the scene from the way he describes things.

Bill: You're right. I guess you don't have to use big words to write a good description of nature. But what happens to the man in the end?

Susan: I don't know. I'm still reading the story.